gardening & global crisis

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gardening & global crisis

Jill Goodman • 16 May 2020

There's another crisis we don't talk about

In my garden the vegetable seedlings have just been hit by frost - I'm hoping they will survive. I didn't protect them well enough.

There are fewer bees and insects again this year. We need all these pollinators. It's a global problem.

I worry (and try not to) about the bigger issues. At present we are so concerned about the coronavirus pandemic that other major problems are being ignored. Both the Covid and climate catastrophes are not misfortunes that befell us - they are a pattern of decisions that we humans are taking.

But just perhaps the same worldwide awareness and response to Covid could help shape a new way forward - to tackle climate crisi which will be an even bigger global problem for years to come and for future generations.

Here's an extract from Professor Stephen Hawking's book Brief Answers to Big Questions first published in 2018 (he died on 14th March 2018):

The Earth is under threat from so many areas that is is difficult for me to be positive. The threats are too big and too numerous.

First, the Earth is becoming too small for us. Our physical resources are boing drained at an alarming rate. We have presented our planet with the disastrous gift of climate change. Rising temperatures, reduction of the polar ice caps, deforestation, over-population, disease, war, famine, lack of water and decimation of animal species; these are all solvable but so far have not been solved.