One of my dear readers accused me of being too optimistic about the environment, the other day, and that isn't something I am accused of very often. But I was reminded of a twelve hour period recently when three ridiculously optimistic things happened to me. I watched one of our sheep giving birth at midnight, while waiting for the phone call to say my daughter had given birth to my second grandson, and the following morning I planted a mulberry tree seedling. I may still be around when the lamb reaches very old age in 14 year's time. It is possible I will be around when my baby grandson becomes an adult. I certainly won't be around when the tiny seedling reaches maturity. But I increasingly wonder whether anyone will be around when that tree reaches full size in perhaps 50 years' time. The predictions of the effects of global warming are now detailed and precise, and the observations of ice melting and storms increasing not only match existing predictions but strongly suggest that scientists were being much too cautious a few years ago. We are on a runaway train which has now reached the top of a steep hill, or the Titanic gathering speed as it reaches the iceberg field.
But just when you think that the dangers are so obvious that there will be a great outcry, the media will be filled with global warming stories, the politicians will swing into action, come bits of news that make any optimistic views impossible. For instance the developer in America looking to make a lot of money in Alaskan developments when the Arctic melted, and George Bush signing a deal with the Indian government on nuclear energy one day and selling national forests the next. You can imagine the developer saying 'well, someone's going to make money out of the destruction of the planet and it might as well be me'. If he had been on the Titanic you can imagine him conducting a lottery, winner take all, on the exact time the ship would hit an iceberg. So why am I breeding sheep, planting large trees, and looking dotingly at pictures of baby grandsons? Well, you've gotta keep hoping, and keep trying, I guess. I can't see myself down in the Titanic ballroom with the conservatives dancing the night away. I'm the annoying guy who keeps nagging the captain and the engineers and the first mate and the owners, trying to convince them to slow down and then reverse.
So, are you staying in the ballroom, or are you coming up to the bridge with me? Young Alex is going to need help from all of us - and so is the mulberry tree.