I am not a ‘Climate Change Denier’, certainly not. But I am a ‘Climate Change Solution Sceptic’, at least at local level.
Take hedgerows, The government has declared its ambition to plant thousands of miles more of them, but have they checked this out with farmers and landowners? Machinery gets bigger; on our arable land we are putting in thirty foot wide gateways so that combine harvesters can move quickly between fields. On grass fields the hedges serve to contain and shelter livestock. But livestock numbers can only go down with the increases in vegetarianism and veganism. Thinking about our own patch of England, our fields are not large; it would make so sense to make them smaller. I’ve identified a few hundred yards, two fields currently divided by a fence, not much over two thousand acres.
And then hundreds of thousands of acres of trees, and increased wetlands. The old adage comes to mind; ‘a man canna farm wi’ wood n’ water’. I can visualise areas of Wales, and especially Scotland, which could be planted up, but in our fertile soils the loss of crop-growing land would make us even more dependent on imports.
‘Send us £5 and we’ll plant a tree for you’ says a national organisation in my newspaper. An easy way to salve our consciences. As though sticking a tree in the ground was the end of the matter. I have seen so many trees planted in the wrong place, neglected after panting, destroyed by squirrels and deer. Each year that passes we become a more urban society. Is there anybody up there who really knows about nature and the countryside?