Tears for a tree
Which is the greater crime? To cut down a tree, or to fail to take action while the forest burns?’
(extracted from The Guardian, by Rob Cowen*)
In September a 300 year old tree was cut down by vandals. The Sycamore Gap tree – sitting in an ancient hill fold in Hadrians Wall, Northumberland – was gone, triggering grief not only from the local population who had grown up with it, but from politicians, celebrities, environmentalists and nature charities everywhere. Perhaps saddest of all is that a 16 year old was detained for its destruction – reflecting a society utterly disconnected from, and disinterested in the natural and non-human world. We have failed him just as we have failed nature.
Living in a climate and biodiversity emergency, we are apathetic bystanders at the sixth great mass extinction where a high percentage of biodiversity, distinct species—bacteria, fungi, plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates—dies out.on Earth. People may ask ‘ how do we stop this?’ But that may be as far as it ever goes. Life gets in the way. Earning a living, paying bills, feeding and clothing our children, are all-consuming and appear more urgent. We pass these challenges to those in charge - tasked to do the best for the country, for the world. And what do they do? In what claims to be a progressive, civilised and “nature-loving” land we have a government that has systematically backtracked on its commitments to meet climate imperatives and torn up its environmental policies and promises.
Wildfires in Canada and elsewhere and catastrophic floods around the globe, are results of the climate crisis. In the face of this, Rishi Sunak announced the granting of new licences for oil and gas drilling in the North Sea and has now pushed back some of the government’s net zero commitments- shamelessly driving a wedge through the issue of climate to win votes. The impact of his decisions will be enormous, the knock-on effects disastrous. Labour’s has failed to launch a counter-policy. Politicians on all sides see taking the essential steps to ensure future generations can live in a habitable world as too unpopular a move among the electorate to stand behind. We kick the can down the ever-shortening road.
Nature and the natural world have been eroded from curriculums and classrooms; much of England’s countryside is off-limits (only 8% is classified as open access, on which the right to roam exists); our rivers can often not be accessed or swum in safely, due to water company pollution, or our moors or mountains slept on legally. How can we expect people to form connections with this living world if they cannot be in it? How can we ask people to protect something they have no sense of belonging in, or to?
The people who cut down the tree failed to see the beauty and magnificence of an ancient sycamore. But their action reflects a long series of cuts - deeper and more destructive than the actions of that one person. What can we hope for as a result of this vandalism? Not a sculpture perhaps or a memorial, just a root and branch change to nature.
Full text available at
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/03/sycamore-gap-tree-grieve-chopped-down?utm_term=651e985ec638564b36bd34b992dcd18f&utm_campaign=DownToEarth&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=greenlight_email