Since the Australian fires of some weeks ago, I have felt that there is much to be considered in what has been happening. At the same time there has been a part of me that doesn’t want to write anything about them. I have wondered why it is that I have felt able to write about UK floods and yet it has been more difficult to find something to say about the bush fires in Australia.
There have been many times over the last few weeks when I have thought about writing about flooding. We are now in the last week in February and figures I have seen in the last few days suggest that some parts of the UK have already received double their average rainfall for this month with a number of days to go (and it is still raining!). A range of parts of the country has experienced some flooding.
Water is the other part of the Trees by Water name. Water is perhaps an issue not just in relation to climate change itself, but more broadly in terms of our relationship with the natural world. Although we in the UK generally think of water as a plentiful resource, we have recently experienced water shortages in some areas. (Hotter and drier weather has also had consequences in terms of fires, especially on open moorland, but I intend to write about this on another occasion).
The name of the website where these blogs are being posted is Trees by Water. That name was chosen because it suggests growing to maturity in a healthy way. The first blog on this site gives a few ways that we can look at the symbolism of both trees and water.
The beginning of a New Year seems a good day for a blog, the first year of the 2020s even
more so. One reason for this is that the headlines of at least some of the newspapers this
morning feature the prize which Prince William is instituting to encourage people to find
solutions to the climate crisis.
I am writing this two and a half weeks after an election and one day
before the end of the year. The New Year is generally a symbol of
hope and I’m still idealistic enough to think that elections can be too.
One of the striking aspects of the election campaign for me
was that ecological issues were at least discussed far more than in any other campaign
which I remember. More than that, the BBC’s flagship news programme on the radio
this morning featured items about the climate crisis, ice-melt in Antarctica and
