#When The Last Tree Is Cut

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

This is the most commonly used definition of sustainable development which is still being used today and it’s from The 1987 Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. Also known as the Brundtland Commission it was a forerunner in the United Nation’s path to the Earth Summit and Agenda 21, the blueprint to sustainable development for the 21st century. If you haven’t heard of any of this before don’t worry I will be going on quite a bit about the UN process with BFB in the future so stay tuned.

Our Common Future is a lengthy read but one I would still recommend. At its time it was the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the Shiite we were all in. It shows that senior diplomats and politicians were shocked at the scale of the problem and the data being presented by the scientists.

Part of the Commission’s mandate was to:

“Re-examine the critical issues of environment and development and to formulate innovative, concrete, and realistic action proposals to deal with them”. The people responsible for the development in the UK over the past 40 years only seem to have heard the word CONCRETE.

Another important part of their mandate was to:

“Raise the level of understanding and commitment to action on the part of individuals, voluntary organizations, businesses, institutes, and governments”.

Sadly 😢 if they had managed to do that then we wouldn’t need Boiling Frogs Blog or the thousands of others working to protect what is left of our dying planet.

However, this groundbreaking report was commissioned way back in 1983. 40 years ago. A very long time ago. Maybe not geologically or universally but at the rate that we have been destroying our own life support systems, its 70% of this species ago, 85% of that species ago. Untold millions of species extinct or just about to go extinct ago. Ergo, we need to rethink that antiquated definition of Sustainable Development and stop allowing its use by those engaged in what seems to be an orchestrated campaign to finish off what’s left of the natural world.

How things have changed? Do you think that if the Brundtland Commission had any idea that the global environment would deteriorate so rapidly in just 40 years of development that they would have come up with a different definition? I think that many of them would agree that the ability of future generations to meet their own needs has been completely compromised. As each day goes by we are still adding more and more to the 70% of this species gone, 85% of that species gone. How many more species becoming extinct will it take to change people’s attitudes?

I’ve been campaigning for a very long time so I know I am biased. However, I still can’t believe that most people even today when seeing a group of their fellow citizens hanging in or hugging on trees while handcuffed but yet somehow still waving homemade banners at the bulldozers will just walk past thinking them insane. Let me explain what insane is. I think insane is seeing these people, listening to what they are saying and not doing everything in your power to help them. Even if that means popping home and tearing up old sheets for a banner of your own.

There are, of course, other ways than following the call “take to the trees”. You can help in many ways and we hope to give you lots of examples here on BFB. Ideas like joining their social media campaign to raise awareness but hang on we will be talking about that in a bit.

I think it’s imperative that so so many more people find the courage to start believing what they’re hearing. Believe the Science! Believe the homemade placards! Believe their friends, their neighbours and most importantly believe their children! I know it’s scary but it’s all about feeling the fear and recycling anyway.

Developers must believe it’s still same GRIT different day. They are not even having a radical shift in thinking let alone a Paradigm one. What Vision of the Future are they following exactly if any or is it simply short-term profit? According to one developer’s greenwash: “Sustainable development providing solutions and tailored to meet local needs”. The horrible thing about Greenwash is that it’s usually spot on to what we actually need but the people who say it aren’t doing anything of the kind.

Tree defenders across the UK face the same problems with the same set of players in each community. Let me put it as politely as I can. Some council members and their interests are not always necessarily the same interests as the community to whom they serve.

Most of the protests are about local community level developments (for the record I strongly disagree with the term development as it is not developing anything, it’s more like destruction, devastation, disorientation and downright dishonesty). Let’s move into the area of national developmental madness. Plans like, for example the extremely non controversial HS2.

#HS2 sounds fascinating on their website anyway. The first thing that struck me is that these people actually seem to believe in their own bull💩. I know exactly the same could be said about me, however, I think that the science leans heavily in my favour.

The IPCC has said all it has to say. There will be no more warnings. If we continue down the business as usual path with ideas like #HS2 then who exactly do they think will be travelling anywhere in 2100 even if it’s super fast?! Imagine the same resources being spent on projects that provide free local eco friendly transport services. But hang on no apparently that’s a crazy idea.

The damage to nature with #HS2 construction will be another nail in the coffin of our own eventual destruction. They are literally ripping out the backbone of the natural world with thinking that has taken us from an abundance of nature to the brink of a catastrophic total absence of nature.

The whole idea of government funding for development is to show the world we have a growing economy, we are still strong as a nation and it’s all hunky dory business as usual because we don’t want to be embarrassed at the next #G7 meeting.

Projects take years to complete. Almost all designed with unsustainable thinking. We need to go back to the drawing boards. We need to genuinely consult our community and we must make sure that they understand and participate. We have all the experience and expertise to do it right but the failed system held up by those looking only for short-term personal gain is refusing to let go.

Recently, I have read that the big guns of conservation are getting together to apparently #SaveOurWildIsles. The rhetoric from Save Our Wild Isles, telling us all what we need to do and how urgent it is that we all do it, is fantastic. These large organisations have great resources at their disposal and now, especially that they have teamed up with David Attenborough, hopefully, many more people will start taking action on local environmental issues.

Until then we would like to promote and raise awareness of The People that have been and are fighting to #SaveOurWildIsles as we speak. One small track of Ancient Woodland, a section of protected countryside or in some cases one tree at a time.

Ok, I said we were going to talk about social media so here goes.

Bit about twitter and our online campaign

Below you will see some excellent examples of Twitter accounts set up by people on the front lines. Obviously they are using social media to raise awareness and as a call to action so your support will be greatly appreciated. BFB will be blogging regularly giving updates to many of these last stands so go and sign up for our bulletin and we will do our best to keep you informed of the latest developments on local developments.

@BonkersBuswa