The Age of Stupid?

Do we have to live like this? What if we could make a change?

I am so sorry for the long wait for another hedgehoggy instalment - but there are reasons … 

First I got a very brief cold, but that wobbled into a strange sort of post-viral labyrinthitis - not the sort that has you collapsed in a heap, this was just a very unpleasant week or so when it felt like I had drunk 3 glasses of wine - without any of the good bits!

Then I had a trip down to Devon to lecture in Chulmleigh - thank you to Nick and Claire Withers for putting me up. It was supposed to be a talk about my book, Cull of the Wild - so I began with the provocative first slide you see here. I found out that they had craftily advertised the talk as about hedgehogs and conservation - leaving out the bit about killing!! So there were some quite concerned faces as I started!

Then - well trouble rarely comes alone. Monday 0100 I found myself in Northampton dealing with a crisis - while the rain started to fall at home in Oxford. Despite the best attempts to barricade, one of the office sheds flooded - and a number of houses on our street got it even worse. My 18 year old boy was home alone - the situation was so stressful for him - and I was helpless, away. Luckily our community is amazing - friends came to help lift things off the floor just in case the house went … fortunately it didn’t.

The flooding was particularly annoying because it was so unnecessary. This was not the Thames bursting its banks, but surface water with nowhere else to go. Solutions have been suggested, repeatedly, for nearly 20 years - but the combination of Thames Water, city and county councils, Environment Agency, highways, and park managers all failing to work together in a constructive manner means we suffer. 

There, I have vented … but really - it would be so much better for everyone if grownups ran things …

Back to hedgehogs! This flooding happened during the day and reminded me how these ever increasing - in number and severity - events have a dramatic, and uncounted impact on hedgehogs. The water levels rose fast. Hedgehogs sleep during the day. Nests will have been inundated before they could escape.

I know that this petition is aimed at the very small scale - at getting hedgehog highways into new developments. And I am thrilled at how far we have got - another meeting with a major developer later this month. But - there are systemic problems that need addressing. There is no doubt that the severity and number of dramatic weather events is directly related to the changing climate. There is no doubt among respected scientists that the climate is changing and that it is caused by us burning fossil fuels. There are loud and well-funded voices that suggest otherwise - but … who are you going to trust? The oil-company funded ‘think tank’ - or scientists who have dedicated their lives to this work?

I love hedgehogs - I imagine that many of you do too. But I love more than hedgehogs - I love life - I love life simply for it being there - I love it for the utterly ridiculously small chance that we have of even existing. We are so privileged to live in a time of so much awareness - in a time when we know what is happening - in a time when we also know what we need to do to stop the damage.

A friend of mine, Franny Armstrong, made an amazing film called ‘The Age of Stupid.’ Ten years after it was launched, she released ‘What If?’ - a short sequel - just 9 minutes long. You can watch it here - you might even notice a slightly younger me making an appearance!

Like the flooding in my neighbourhood, we know what needs to be done - do we really need to live in the age of stupid?

Up and coming events:

Sunken Garden Festival

I will be talking on Sunday 6th October.

Oxon Mammal Group

I am launching their winter season of talks in the Museum of Natural History in Oxford on 14th November.

March for Clean Water

All being well I will join this call for clean water - yet another example of the age of stupid is all too often seen floating down our rivers and into the sea.