AFON
A Round Tuit – by Louise Farnham
Welcome to our series of blog posts in the run up (originally) to the general election (7th May 2015). Over this month AFON members will share their own Visions for Nature: what they want the natural world to look like by 2050 and how they want to get there. Despite the election being over, we have decided to continue the series as more posts keep arriving from our members! We have created a hashtag on Twitter so why not join the conversation? What’s your #VisionforNature?
When I was younger, my parents had a small plate called ‘A Round Tuit’ (above), which I often think of when I consider humanity; a species with the capacity to look forward and anticipate the future both near and far, but our behaviour being still largely reactive with thought processes firmly placed in the present. Studies have found – to no great surprise – that humans find it difficult to accurately evaluate or understand relative risk, particularly when faced with an immediate risk versus a distant risk.
Consider anti-vaxxers, for example, who fail to comprehend the significant difference between an immediate, small risk (vaccination) and a potentially disastrous risk (epidemic, acute illness, disfiguration, death) in the future. What harm to miss a jab? What harm to ignore our natural world? We’ll save the environment when we get around to it…
Charismatic species can only do so much for conservation, and it is hard to raise awareness in the particular climate of divisiveness, defensiveness and finger-pointing that we live in today. Door-to-door knocking and clipboard wielding on the streets only does so much (as well as being a relentless irritation), and viral posts may get shared hundreds, thousands, billions of times, but what are these keyboard warriors doing other than sharing the posts? Are they, ultimately, acting?
I will be the first to admit, I am one of the worst offenders. With my small, young family and quarter-life-crisis, I’ve let many of my passions fall by the wayside as my world has gotten smaller and smaller. Focussed on little things such as ‘which school?’, ‘what’s stuck to the cat?’, ‘why are you licking your sister?’, I find my minutes, hours and days being swallowed up with none of the khaki-clad, child-on-back outdoorsy saving-the-world that I imagined in my youth. But I can change. I do have a vision for nature, and it starts with me.
As a parent and a community leader (girl guides, scouts etc.), I can teach children to wonder at each and every facet of our environment, and marvel at the creatures that live in it. I can teach them to respect nature and life in all forms, and I will always view time spent with children as a teaching opportunity, either through organised activities or by setting an example through my behaviour.
I can be a community leader in other ways, enabling other families to interact and ‘re-wild’ by participating or organising events such as bio-blitzes, habitat restoration, wildlife and ecological surveys, creating family friendly events that creates a community feeling of responsibility for our environment, and fostering a habit of custodianship in our youth, that our work may be continued.
I can engage with and include local groups through social networks, blogs, school activities, religious meetings and local government events to spread news of ongoing work and keep the links of communication open and maintain support. I can research and educate myself and take courses to be able to offer more in events, to charitable organisations (phase 1 Habitat Surveys, GIS, population surveys, protected species mitigation work etc.).
I will look at standing as a political candidate, because our government needs changing from the inside, for conservation reasons and many others. I will also delete all my dodgiest tweets and Facebook rants in case I actually win a constituency (see above). Although I quite liked Maths.
This is what I will do. No more pointing fingers, no more hiding behind my computer screen, no more putting things off until I get around to it. I can be the change. And I’m looking to you for inspiration. How are you being the change?