Verse 2 of Joni Mitchel’s 1970 classic Big
Yellow Taxi goes like this,
They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum
And they charged all the people
A dollar and a half to see 'em
And put them in a tree museum
And they charged all the people
A dollar and a half to see 'em
Earlier this year I performed at the Scottish
Parliament for Environment Week. It was a good event. It showed that people
care – at least in theory. However what I see around me does not tally at all.
For hundreds of yards along the Water of Leith near where I live, both
banks have been denuded of trees as remedial work was carried out to manage the
river. Many locals believe that if ongoing maintenance had been done then the
wholesale blight of the rivers’ banks would not have been necessary. Also,
calls to protect mature and beautiful Roseburn / Murrayfield trees fell
largely on deaf ears.
So far, along with the tonnes and tonnes of new
concrete, I counted 19 tiny replacement tree saplings. Three don’t look too
healthy. And while I applaud tree planting, a venture much enjoyed by schools
and a great sap [sorry for the pun] to corporations who like to be associated
with these kinds of uncontroversial eye-candy charities, does it need to be said
out loud TREES TAKE A LONG TIME TO GROW so better not cut them down.
A few months back I was near the central Edinburgh
university campus and noted workmen sweating to chop down several mature cherry
trees in full bloom. Much of that area too is now going under concrete. The impact is immediate - on our stretch
of river, while we still see the herons, it is a long time since I’ve seen a
kingfisher.
At my local primary school – which I walk past most
days – I noticed after Christmas the increasing prevalence of cars churning up
the water-logged grass verge along the lane by the side of the school. Eventually I mentioned to two parents I saw there
regularly that the grass verge was not a car park and might they consider the
amount of damage their large car was doing and the mess they were creating. A
local councillor suggested contacting the police (on grounds of criminal
damage!) but I strongly suspect the police have higher priorities than chasing
thoughtless parents. A while after that, my parthner had to help a woman
extricate her car when the wheels got stuck in the quagmire she herself helped
to make– he obliged, ending up covered in mud.
The first couple – apart from being rude – told me
they had been given permission to park there by the school – which was easily
fact checked as a silly lie. What I don’t get – and I could be misjudging a
book by its cover – is that they looked like the kind of couple who’d serve
their child wholemeal, organic seasonal fairy dust on sustainably produced
gluten free carrot fluffs with guilt-free quinoa, flown in from paradise on a
non-carbon producing magic lilac unicorn. But they are happy to a. poison other
people’s children by driving down the lane next to the school playground b.
churn up the green areas where other people, who like to walk to school - like
to walk.
Ditto another couple who recently sought – and did
not get – neighbour agreement to decimate a mature sycamore (ok not everyone’s
favourite tree – but hey – like my teenaged daughter said – it’s a TREE!!!).
They wanted to cut the tree – not in their garden but – as it turns out – in my 89 yr. old neighbour’s garden – down to 9 feet – what we otherwise call a tree
stump. The garden of my elderly neighbour has a variety of mature trees,
planted by her dad, well maintained by a local gardening charity for the
elderly. When the over-the-way folk realised they were not going to get the
go-ahead they did that Jekyll and Hyde thing where they went from twee to
fck-you in a nano second.
In 2014 when I toured my environmental poetry audio
story 'Casey & the Surfmen' around a couple of dozen primary schools and libraries in Edinburgh there
was news about new explorations of the deep ocean made possible by advances in
diving technology. And what did scientists find already down there? Rubbish, plastics
and other human pollution.
Two years ago I travelled to the highlands for a
wedding. The scenery is truly astounding but you are aware that every
impressive panorama is the graveyard of The Caledonian Forests which would once
have been teeming with wildlife, sucking up carbon dioxide and producing
oxygen. I believe best estimates are that there is 1% of the forest remaining.
As we are being told that, in densely populated
conurbations, hedges are as important as trees in mitigating ever more deadly
levels of air pollution – especially diesel particulates – people are
increasingly replacing mature hedges with fencing. Another neighbour of mine
has just done this.
A recent brief item on the news announced that
Britain is particularly poor at tree replanting. The British Ornithology
Society discussing the lesser spotted woodpecker (whose numbers declined
between 1972 and 1999 by 72%) say it is declining still further because of our
penchant for TIDYNESS in woodland. The deadwood these birds require is
cleared away too quickly (unlike beer cans, used condoms, bits of cars and
burnt areas where people have impromptu fires, food cartons, old sofas, fridges
and shopping trolleys).
Years ago I bought a dilapidated house to renovate.
One of its best features was a huge and beautiful pair of mature cherry trees
that were breathtakingly lovely in the spring, lush and shade giving in the
summer. Our neighbours – who were really nice people – admitted that during the
many months when the house was empty – they had considered sneakily getting the
trees cut down because they dropped blossom on their lawn in the spring!!!
Why are we so keen on imposing damaging tidiness on
the tiny bits of nature remaining to us and not so keen when it comes to
clearing up human litter and dog shit?
Politicians are happy to claim they care about the
environment while giving planning permissions that harm it. Just the other side
of the border to the south, Northumberland County Council recently
gave planning permission for open cast mining at Druridge Bay on the
Northumberland coast - an area of acknowledged natural beauty and
important wildlife habitats (see blog 188 Pursuit of Profit is a Terminal
Illness.)
As I mentioned in a previous blog – a dead whale recently washed up on the coast of Tiree. Scientists reckon it was the most polluted sea
creature they have ever examined.
Remember, there are two major factors on planet earth when it
comes to taking up Carbon Dioxide that humans cannot breathe and putting out
Oxygen that we can - the oceans and the trees. So I have to ask - is everyone
mad?
Maybe it’s the pollution.
But anyway – Edinburgh city council and the Scottish
Parliament – if we are to be further deprived of mature and life giving greenery,
please build a tree museum so our children and grandchildren (presumably
wearing oxygen tanks), will at least be able to see what they missed.
“If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one
there to hear it, does it make a sound” is a famous thought experiment
connected with the Philosopher George Berkeley and his seminal work ‘A Treatise
Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge’ 1710. Perhaps the 2017 answer
would be ‘When the last tree falls in the forest there will be no one left
to hear it anyway’.
*
If you are brave enough to stare into the abyss -
get your copy of
Zero One Zero Two
e-book or paperback