 Economy as it is seems to be failing. People are buying less, and whether this is because they cannot afford it, because of a rise in the minimalist mindset, because of sustainability or other million possible reasons is not the point of this post. People are spending less. Especially younger generations (with opposite trends for the older.. maybe due to old habits?). And yes, online shopping might have taken over , but actually the trends in many countries are still that people are spending less. So what?
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 As someone who loves good food and tends to buy local ‘seen-it-growing-with-my-own-eyes’ but equally is fascinated by science - I was captured by this article in the guardian by George Monbiot (a great columnist!) talking about lab grown food.
A very interesting read - and I recommend you to head there and read that first before continuing (click here ) as what follows is entirely my own take.  2020, we are here. It has arrived. With such a beautiful number, it could only mean that an important year lies ahead of us. If 2019 was the year in which climate change became a hot topic in the press, 2020 will already be the ‘deadline’ year . Think about it, it will be a time to come to terms with success (or failures)of current policies - as the European climate and energy targets had a 2020 deadline .  Like every year, the last plenary of the British Ecological Annual Meeting was all about the last '12 months in ecology' and this year was given by Helen Roy, ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. What comes next, is a personal take on her inspiring talk, but you can read a little snippet from her here.
 As we saw last Friday with the elections in the UK... it has happened again! I woke up and the same feeling I experienced in both June and November 2016 assaulted me (3 years later). My mind spinning with questions: is it true? How it is possible ? Are people just ‘stupid ‘?
But my biggest question now, after a few days, is : why was it so unexpected ? Could it be that algorithms , that are keeping me into my happy bubble of ecologists friends who want to change the state of things, are masking reality?  The British Ecological Society Annual meeting this year is in Belfast and has started with a very thought-sparking side event on rewilding chaired by journalist Ella McSweeney who did a wonderful job. You can follow the conversation and some insights on twitter following the #WildIreland.
Here, I will condense my thoughts (too many). I would like to start by giving you a definition of ‘rewilding’, especially for those that don’t feel familiar with the term. But, as it turns out, not only there is no definition but also, there is no agreement on what we actually mean by it. So, please bear with me... As the name implies, rewilding means bringing back some state of wild. Which brings one big question to the table: what is ‘wild’?  In the last few weeks I have maybe painted a dark grey picture of the world, with not so glossy climate scenarios. Add in the news of climate tipping points and it can be easy to think that the only thing left to do is to turn off the alarm in the morning and enjoy the warm bed because ‘does it really matter anymore’?
So I decided to look at the positives today. Blame the Christmas atmosphere and the crispy fresh air that moves some happy warmth inside me if you like ... so take this as my early Christmas present to you all, to calm some of that eco anxiety that might be (knowingly or not) loom at the back of your heads...  Climate change is here, is now, and it’s not that shy. If floodings all over paired with temperature above 20 degrees with less than a month to go before Christmas are not big enough signals (let’s not forget summer fires and last year’s storms that destroyed many forests), then I don’t know what it will be.
Scientists have been saying for a long time that the trends are exponential, logarithmic. This means the curve rises faster and faster as time goes on. Sounds scary, but are we scared enough ?  It’s time to discuss the recent events in Venice. I am writing this post with some delay, but I wanted to try and have a ‘cold mind’ about it (it’s colder than it was, but maybe I am still a little fresh out of it so please bear with me).
 In recent days there is an increasing talk of mental health. Now, while this ‘increase’ could easily be down to the fact that is easier to talk about it now than it was before (while before you might have been locked up in a hospital , now it is more acceptable and easier to find a therapist), it could also be down to our increasingly urbanised way of life. Environmental psychologists are amongst those studying how the environment around us affects us. You can find a great podcast about this here I am convinced that nature , in all of its shapes and forms, plays a huge role in human minds |
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Photos used under Creative Commons from marcoverch, Pascal Volk
