Tag Archives: Biodiversity

Eco-Awareness with Larry Speight: The wisdom of the Pharaoh

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The idea of preparing for a rainy day, of having savings to pay for an unexpected setback such as repairing a much needed home appliance or buying your child a new pair of shoes is an intrinsic part of our culture. In fact, preparing for possible, if not inevitable, hard times seems to be a cross-cultural disposition. In Genesis chapter 41: 14 – 36, Joseph advises the Pharaoh to store surplus food during an expected seven years of plenty in preparation for seven years of famine that are thought will follow as foreseen in the Pharaoh’s dream.

The Pharaoh wisely took Joseph’s advice.

In a general sense people on this island, across Europe and most of the world have since the end of the second world war increasingly lived in an age of plenty, albeit with a terrible price paid by the biosphere in terms of loss of biodiversity, the rise in global temperature and pollution of soil, air and water. During these years of plenty and technological innovation governments have not acted with the wisdom of the Pharaoh and prepared their societies to cope with the predicted negative consequences of our irresponsible treatment of nonhuman nature.

There are, and have been, many Josephs who dedicated their lives to getting us to awaken to the folly of our consumer life-style. Among them are Rachel Carson (1907-1964) who is best known for her 1962 book Silent Spring, E.F. Schumacher (1911-1977) who crystalised his ideas of living within ecological limits in Small is Beautiful (1973). In our own time there is the Irish author and film maker Manchan Magan (1970 – 2025) who is perhaps best known for his book Thirty-Two Words for Field. A climate and human rights campaigner who is known internationally is Greta Thunberg who was Time magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year.

In addition to dedicated individuals there are organisations a plenty in Ireland and elsewhere who, on the basis of rigorous research and sound evidence, inform us that the rainy day we should have prepared for has arrived. We have been urged for decades to radically change our approach to organising the business of living whilst simultaneously preparing for the consequences of our historic abuse of the biosphere. The warnings have largely being ignored with tragic consequences in the form of life-inflicting and property destroying floods, droughts, storms, wild fires and the poisoning of waterways.

A major warning was given over 50 – years ago in the landmark report on the consequences of continuous economic growth titled The Limits To Growth (1972). It was produced by an international team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the think tank The Club of Rome. Thirty million copies were published and the report’s findings were widely debated but the transition to “a stable state society” was never undertaken.

An equally important warning was given in Our Common Future (1987), also known as The Brundtland Report, published by the UN. It had more success in getting society and governments to recognise the serious plight the biosphere was in due to our inconsiderate behaviour. It coined what is now a classic definition of sustainable development. This is: “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”

The report led to the first Earth Summit in Brazil in 1992 out of which came the Commission on Sustainable Development and in time the annual Conference of the Parties, better known as COPs, to address climate breakdown. They have been held annually since 1995. The most successful COP to date was the one held in Paris in 2015 in which agreement was reached by the governments of the world to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius.

In spite of all the conferences, declarations, uncountable scientific reports on the ecological unsustainability of our economic order and the many successful nature conservation projects such as the RSPB’s Curlew protection programme on Upper and Lower Lough Erne, the protection of puffins on Rathlin Island and the Isle of Muck we are metaphorically clinging to the side of the life-boat.

Worryingly New Scientist, 14 March 2026, reports that the average global temperature is rising, sea levels are much higher than previously thought which if the trend continues will lead to the displacement of hundreds of millions of people, the loss of civil infrastructure, agricultural lands and habitat.

Just as disruptive, and unwelcomed by people who find prolonged cold weather insufferable, is the weakening of the ocean current which accounts for our mild climate. There has already been a measurable shift northward and as the New Scientist reports “any abrupt shift in the Gulf Stream could signal an imminent, catastrophic collapse in the ocean current.” If this were to happen the winter temperature in Ireland could at times drop to -20 Celsius.

Our ignoring the warnings of ecological catastrophe has led to the exceedingly poor ecological health of most lakes and rivers across the island including Lough Neagh, Lough Erne and Belfast Lough. The Guardian recently reported that genes capable of creating superbugs resistant to antibiotics have been detected in Lough Neagh and that a study found E coli bacteria in every sample of cattle manure tested in the Lough Neagh catchment area.

Genes capable of creating superbugs resistant to antibiotics could exist in other bodies of water. The existence of such genes is something the health and water authorities should take very seriously as the World Health Organisation describes antimicrobial resistance as “one of the most urgent, complex and frightening health challenges of our time”.

This situation alone highlights the case that if we value our health, which is not separate from the health of others, we need to embrace the credo of the likes of Rachel Carson, E.F. Schumacher and Manchan Magan and be cognisant that the technosphere is wholly dependent on the ecosphere and cease to be blasé about how we treat the only home we have.

Billy King: Rites Again, 334

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Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

Well, Michael D is finally about to up on his bikeldee and away and CC (cc Heather Humphreys), Catherine Connolly, will very soon be there in the Áras. She has been a staunch peace and neutrality supporter, sound on many social questions, as well as being a very unassuming and likeable person. The government indicated that her being elected would make no difference to plans to ditch the Triple Lock. But perhaps some Fianna Fáil TDs will look into their hearts, and that of voters in their constituencies, and find some backbone to resist Micheál Martin’s protracted and ill thought out onslaught on said Triple Lock, based on the support shown for Connolly.

The Irish presidency is primarily a representative rather than a purely political, and certainly not a party political, one. Michael D pushed the boat out in a different way to Mary Robinson who initiated the demand by Irish people for someone in the role who was not a time or place server. The office is in good hands with Catherine Connolly. It would have been interesting to have an Ulster (Monaghan) Presbyterian in Heather Humphreys in the role but on social issues and on peace she is a typical conservative Fine Gaeler so Connolly is streets or fields ahead on a wide number of issues. There were some deficiencies in the presidential election process, including the criteria to ‘enter the contest’, but Catherine Connolly won by a landslide.

Biodiversity and my-cology

The world is an amazing place. While we can get thoroughly depressed about many aspects of what is happening in the world due to the actions of Homo Sapiens (title open to dispute for a number of reasons), we can still share amazement for the wonder and adaptability of nature. We can destroy all the flora and fauna we want (or, rather, don’t want enough to alter our behaviour) but ‘nature’ will go on – and would go on even if we, Homo Sap, do not, and we are still being foolish beyond measure.

There were two stories in the Gordian recently that speak about the resilience of nature, one from Canada and one from Iceland. One is about the restoration of natural ecosystems on Toronto’s waterfront: “The century-old plants bursting from newly exposed soil initially made headlines, but it was only the first of a string of extraordinary discoveries. Pollen from the American chestnut, a tree now extinct in the area, was discovered in the dirt. So too was a seed from the 1500s. The remains of one of the largest and most important peat bogs in the region were rescued. Then, last year, the team submerged soil samples and made the astounding discovery of water fleas, trapped in the soil since at least the late 1800s, which had sprung back to life. So too had worms, larvae and zooplankton….” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/09/toronto-waterfront-soil-plants-worms

And a new, volcanic island off Iceland has amazed scientists with the speed at which life has established itself after it began to emerge in 1963. “Scientists had expected algae and mosses to be the first colonisers, building up a base of soil that would eventually support vascular plants. But that step was skipped completely. More plants were washed ashore in the following years, and some clung to the island’s bare volcanic rock……..In the early 1980s, black-backed gulls started to nest on sections of the island, sheltering in one of the stormiest parts of the Atlantic Ocean. Their arrival kicked off an explosion of life. Guano carried seeds that quickly spread grasses along the island, fed in turn by the nutrients from the birds. For the first time, whole areas of bare rock became green….” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/13/nature-volcanic-island-surtsey-iceland-ecosystems-aoe

Meanwhile, coming not only closer to home but to my actual home, we have a patch of grass at the front of our house which is less than a couple of metres wide with a hedge before the suburban footpath. And a hornbeam tree there in the footpath. The grass might have last been dug up many decades ago and what grows there, including clover, is let grow. But what I saw this autumn amazed me; not one, not two, not three, but four varieties of fungi growing, a couple overlapping but mainly in succession, presumably in symbiotic relationship with the tree outside. I did check out the possibilities for the names of said fungi but not being enough of a fun guy to be a mycologist a) I am highly unsure of identifying them correctly, and b) because of that and this not being a mycology journal I will spare you the names. I will say one was smaller but somewhat similar to a field/edible mushroom, one a thin, pale ‘toadstool’, and one was a mottled globe headed fungi.

The appearance of such fungi is just part of a cycle but I did institute a ‘no mow September’ and longer to let them do their thing, and presumably spare the spores, it wasn’t a spore-adic reaction [Spore us the puns – Ed], apologies if any of them are allergenic. I would do the same next year. It was a brilliant example of biodiversity not in my back yard but in our small front garden. There might not be much room in our front patch of grass but there is enough, indeed ‘mushroom’, for fungi.

Do you want to die for NATO?

The answer that I would give, by the way, is ‘no’ [Surprise, surprise – Ed] – and I don’t want anyone else to do so either. But in my look at oul books – last month I covered Mary Condren’s “The Serpent and the Goddess” – I dug out my rather worn and tired looking copy of Patrick Comerford’s book with that title, “Do you want to die for NATO?”. This dates from 1984 (published by Mercier Press). How topical can you get? And this was 41 years ago.

Of course much has changed in those four decades and the Irish state, underhandedly and against the wishes of the broad mass of citizens, has cosied up as much as it can to NATO. I should point out that it is INNATE practice to refer to said entity in capitals rather than the cosier looking ‘Nato’ (cf The Irish Times, the change even being made in a published letter by the INNATE coordinator) – there is nothing cosy about NATO, its practice or its commitment to first use of nuclear weapons should it deem it necessary.

The Do you want to die for NATO? Book is short but packed with detail. The context in 1984 was the risk of nuclear war between NATO and the USSR/Russia, either because of deliberate policy or because of accident (the real possibility of this happening has been well documented, where one side believes an attack is coming). Plus ca change….. As to who is winning an arms race, Patrick Comerford says “No one wins a mad race over a cliff edge” (page 12). Plus ca change…

While the Wolfe Tone quote from 1792 is included (page 50) that “We should spurn the idea of moving an humble satellite around any power”, the book does deal with the times and people with whom neutrality can be particularly identified, and those times and people who opposed it or were prepared to ditch it of the time and terms were right. But the independent Irish state got off to a good start with involvement in the League of Nations and opposition to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and opposition to (Blueshirt) pressure to support Francoist fascism in Spain despite its supposed ‘Catholicism’.

The book details how NATO and Warsaw Pact maps or exercises assumed that in a nuclear war there would be Irish targets; 23 potential targets, North and South, are identified in total by the author in the book. It looks at Irish involvement in communications networks for NATO, including Mount Gabriel in the Republic and the (then) Bishopscourt radar base, operated by the RAF, in Co Down.

When the practice of neutrality was fearless and determined, e.g. with Frank Aiken, there were positive results, as with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which came into effect in 1968. However people on all sides of the Irish political scene could be positive or ambivalent; Charles Haughey is quoted from 1981 saying Ireland was militarily neutral but not politically or ideologically neutral – that old let out, much used since by those wanting closer involvement with NATO and EU military developments. On he other hand Garret Fitzgerald, from a party traditionally less inclined to support active neutrality, said in 1993 that Ireland “can also challenge the emergence of a European military super-power” (page 65) – while contemporary governments have attempted to jump on the militarist EU gravy train through involvement in the arms industry and the military-industrial complex.

The EEC, as it then was, is identified, rightly, as a particular challenge to neutrality. But neutrality was never just a bargaining chip to gain a united Ireland; in 1940 Dev refused Churchill’s offer to abandon neutrality in return for a united Ireland. The book also looks at some of what a non-aligned defence could be including the mining of ports and airports so to be useless to an invader.

The history of Irish neutrality is not straightforward but there is much to be proud about. Some of the historical and contemporary complexities of the time (1984) are explored in this book. Patrick Comerford says (page 89) that neutrality could be thought of as a unique contribution or gift “to an EEC seeking political union”. It is a shame and a waste if contemporary Irish politicians and commentators feel that Ireland would be better as a small cog in a large military machine rather than striking out fearlessly for peace. I consider that a failure of imagination, nerve – and backbone – in standing up to the powers that be.

Telling it like it is

There is one inveterate veteran when it comes to letter writing on peace issues in Ireland and that is former Irish army officer and Veterans for Peace and Shannonwatch activist Edward Horgan. He has more letters published than most of us have hot dinners. And all of them make sound sense. Here is one which appeared in different Irish newspapers in mid-to-late October:

“Instead of bringing peace to the Middle East the Trump dictated Gaza peace plan may end up establishing the virtual success of the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people. Hopefully, the killing will stop in Gaza in the short-term. The 20-point peace plan makes no provision for justice for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, or the establishment of peace in the wider Middle East, especially in Lebanon and Syria. Israel has ensured by its environmental and physical destruction, that the Gaza Strip will be unsafe for anyone to live for decades. On 7th Oct 2025 the health ministry released details on Palestinians killed and wounded in Gaza. The recorded death toll since 7 October 2023 is now 67,183 killed, with 169,841 injured. These statistics include: 20,179 children killed, 44,143 children wounded, 4,900 children with amputations or disabilities, 51,196 children under five years old suffering from malnutrition.

This amounts to genocide, yet the present peace plan fails to hold Israel and its US and European supporters to account. The peace plan says that Gaza will initially be governed by a new international transitional body, the “Board of Peace,” which will be headed by President Donald J. Trump, and others including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair. President Trump and his predecessors, and Tony Blair, have been responsible for waging wars of aggression since 2001 that have caused the deaths of millions of people. An International Stabilization Force (ISF) will be immediately deployed in Gaza. A similar stabilization force was deployed in Afghanistan which brought twenty years of chaos to the Afghan people. The quote by Roman historian Tacitus seems appropriate “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.”

QCEA on EU

QCEA, the Quaker Council on European Affairs, always has interesting things to say about the way western Europe is heading, including the realities of the EU in what had been a ‘peace’ project becoming much more of a ‘war’ project. Their summary of Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union address on 10th September is “In her 10 September speech, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of peace mainly through security and defence, with 16 mentions of “fight.” We had hoped to hear more about peace as justice, dialogue, or cooperation, but competitiveness prevailed. Climate was framed as decarbonisation, overlooking nature and the environment. Migration was addressed in terms of management, without reference to the EU’s Anti-Racism Action Plan.” Von der Leyen’s speech is at https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/ov/SPEECH_25_2053 and the QCEA is at https://www.qcea.org/ where you can find out more about their work and read their publications.

Supporting genocide

I find unionist politics in Norn Iron sad in a different way to how I find some Sinn Féin policies sad – I understand why the latter support previous IRA actions but no, IRA violence was not necessary or unavoidable, it is that people on all sides saw no alternative – there were nonviolent alternatives that people did not see or know about. I recently wrote about unionist support for British militarism (they are joined by the current government in Dublin in their support of militarism). But on many questions, whether on education – dividing children into academic and less-academic schools at age 11 – or international issues, well words fail me. [That would be a first – Ed.] Support for Israel ‘to the hilt’ – appropriate as this is a sword metaphor – comes from ideological and theological but not-very-logical sources, as well of course for the all important reason of them’uns supporting Palestine.

Recently a unionist delegation went to Israel, paid for by the Israeli state (‘No expense to UK taxpayers, folks!’). The cross-party unionist group included Norn Iron Minister for Education Paul Givan and the amazing Sammy Wilson, both of the DUP. They visited an Israeli school in occupied East Jerusalem and Paul Givan had a photo put up on the NI Department of Education website. Naturally all hell broke loose with activists on Palestine and those who are not unionists and also teachers unions and bodies. The DUP are of course standing by their man or men. But I wanted to express how very thoughtful it was of the Israeli state in a war situation to offer an all expenses visit to look at educational approaches, obviously there were no ulterior motives whatsoever, and there is absolutely no question of the unionists themselves being political stooges……

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Well, it may not be meteorological winter until December but it feels We Have Arrived there. But every season has its pluses and minuses. Winter can be a time for relaxing at home, hopefully in the warmth, with a good book or film and maybe a pleasant chat with your partner or a friend or two. And winter weather is an excuse to stay put there rather than attend to other matters. The winter solstice is a wee bit away yet but, come the end of January, there is the chance to see days getting longer again and the process of regeneration begin. I hope you are sitting comfortably as you read this. I will see you again soon before what can be, for many people, the mad social whirl coming up to Christmas. Hibernia abu, Billy.

Eco-Awareness: Caring for the countryside

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Larry Speight brings us his monthly column –

Caring for the countryside

When I was a boy growing up in Belfast the countryside was considered an exotic place. While the city was concrete, tarmac, factories, warehouses, office blocks, shops, expansive residential areas, litter on the streets, motor traffic congestion and foul air, particularly during the winter when burning coal to keep homes warm and heat water for the family weekly bath was the norm, the countryside, by comparison, was regarded as a place of purity and wildness

When on cycling tours through the countryside I particularly enjoyed the hedgerow lined roads aware that they were a source of autumn nutrition for people and wildlife in the form of various berries, seeds and nuts. Springtime was a celebration of colours when wildflowers and grasses appeared. In comparison to the city the countryside was replete with a rich variety of birds, mammals and insects. Rabbits were a common sight, part of a food web and the rivers and streams ran clear, many lined with trees and filled with aquatic life. There was heather, hills, lakes and woods with a mystic attached to them. The smells, sounds and the quiet were of a quality not found on the noisy city streets.

Another thing which at that time made the countryside alluring is that the stories country people told, their common phrases, the rhyme and cadence of their voices were markedly different from those heard in the city. These differences have long been diluted by the broadcasting media and a commuter lifestyle. Nevertheless, many city folk still visit the countryside as a tonic, somewhere to go to ‘get away from it all’, replenish themselves, touch base and in general have an enjoyable time.

Although in days gone by the countryside was considered by urbanities as a place apart we knew that there was an interdependency in that much of what we ate came from the local farms as their smell, flavors and the soil that clung to the root vegetables confirmed. Lettuce and tomatoes, gooseberries and strawberries meant that it was summer time and their taste was, as anyone who has a kitchen garden will know, incomparable to those grown in the mega polytunnels so prevalent across Europe today.

Much of what defined the countryside up until about the late 1970s has largely gone and few mourn this as few realise it. I was recently reminded when journeying through west Fermanagh of the increasing homogeneity and consequent bio-poverty of the countryside when I saw a large segment of a hedgerow that had been bulldozed and set alight. In the aftermath of persistent rain there were no flames amongst the carcass of recent habitat but rather the dismal sight of grey smoke rising and spreading which road users, birds and mammals, could only pass through with mouth and nostrils tightly shut. The word ‘harm’ came to mind to describe what I saw.

The hedgerows in County Fermanagh, and in fact across the whole of the island, are uprooted and burnt at a tremendous rate and replaced by desolate barbed wire fencing. There are no recent figures for the annual loss of hedgerows in Northern Ireland but in the Irish Republic, as reported by RTE News, 6,000 kilometers are destroyed every year. It is not only bio-rich hedgerows that are lost but broadleaf trees are regularly felled and are variously left to decay, set on fire or sawn-up for firewood. For those who care about the wondrous flora and fauna that is disappearing before our eyes, not to mention the fish kills caused by slurry, fertiliser, herbicide and pesticide run-off, this is desecration. In regard to the state of rivers in Northern Ireland the Belfast Telegraph, 11 December 2021, reports that “in 2021, zero river bodies achieved good or high overall status” and that the lakes were rated no better. The rivers, lakes and coastal waters in the Irish Republic have a similar rating.

Replacing hedgerows with a fence might be done to eliminate the need for regular hedge trimming and thus save time and money, it might also be done to prevent cattle and horses escaping onto the roads which can result in serious accidents, and bulldozing a stand of mature broadleaf trees might be a way to increase grazing land or grow more grass for silage. The agricultural economy has changed during my life-time and many will say that the efficiency achieved is for the better as prior to Putin’s war on Ukraine the price of food was the cheapest in living memory. If, however, I were a kingfisher, a curlew, a corncrake, a barn owl, a snipe, a sparrow hawk, an otter, a salmon, a trout, a hare, an orchid, a bee, a bluebell, an oak tree or a stream, I would think that the change has been disastrous.

One thing that our economic system is blind to is that there can be no economy without ecology. Unless we put the welfare of nonhuman nature at the heart of our economic decisions then it and us, especially our descendants, really do have a bleak future. The point we need to keep in mind is that the future is not prescribed as we are the authors of the type of society and countryside we want to live in.

To leave our descendants a countryside that is a repository of biodiversity and a place where farmers earn a good living producing tasty nutritious food we need to exercise our agency and refuse to be cogs in the giant nature-eating machine which is the international economic order. There are a number of ways we can do about this. We can take the baby step of planting and nurturing a variety of vegetable seeds this spring, and a toddler step would be to petition our Local Council to provide community allotments as well as regularly monitor the quality of the water in rivers and lakes and ensure the hedgerows are not trimmed out of season. The contact details of your local councilors are available on the internet.

As there are Local Council elections this May in Northern Ireland and next year in the Irish Republic voters have leverage through asking candidates in their ward what they have done, and will do if elected, to protect and enhance the ecological health of our countryside as well as provide their constituents with a resilient, bio-enhancing agricultural system. This is a urgent matter given that a 2020 survey by the UK Natural History Museum and the RSPB ranked Northern Ireland as the 12th worst country in the world for biodiversity, the Republic of Ireland was ranked 13th. Will the candidates, if elected, work to ensure that the Council increases biodiversity within the electoral boundary by 30 % by 2030, which is the target set by the COP15 biodiversity conference held last December in Montreal?

We can hardly expect our descendants to think well of us if our legacy to them is a countryside in which poisoned rivers flow, the soil is kept on life-support through expensive artificial chemicals and there is not a butterfly, bee or bird to be seen across the bland lines of fencing where bio-rich, sheltering, shadow casting, food providing, story inspiring hedgerows used to grow.

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