Inktober 2020 - Day 10 - ‘Hope’
I saw David Attenborough’s ‘A life on our planet’ (or frankly ‘ David Attenborough‘s witness statement’ as that's what he actually calls it in the film) recently. While it was nothing new to me, it was a film I think everyone should see really. Because Sir David is excellent at not only highlighting the urgency of us needing to fix our planet, he offers hope in how it can be easy to change this is we take small steps (and bigger ones to oppose those who are making the big and bad choices).
My home town of Worthing has wind turbines off the coast. They’ve unobtrusive and somewhat pretty (and not nearly as visible as I’ve drawn them here, but lollipop sticks coming out the sea doesn’t look as great). But you’d be amazed by the amount who opposed to such things. When I briefly lived in the tourist trap of Bournemouth- the locals opposed such wind turbines off the coast because “It would be a blot on the landscape and hurt tourism”. Because windmills 8 miles out to sea may blow the tourist away right? Idiots. So they were not built in Bournemouth and instead they were built near Worthing and Brighton, because there are more green minded people living there and in council seats (and one main reasons I was pleased to move back home). Fighting for such things is a really important step we all need to do, because it’s one of the main things we will need in the future.
My own photo of said ‘blOt On THe lAnDScAPE.’
The other thing I do personally (along with many other locals) is pick litter off the beach when we can. I often walk home via the beach. It’s a longer route but it always clams me down. I often see some sweet nature and I take the rubbish I find off the beach and put it into a bin (next step is what we do with our land fills, but like David said- little steps). The object being grabbed by the litter picker is an inhaler that was home to set of deceased goose barnacles. This is based on something I once found myself.
There is a metaphor here I’m sure.
I once found live goose barnacles in a shoe. I did throw them back out to sea but found the shoe washed up with a few dead goose barnacles a few weeks later. I can but give them a fighting chance. I of course binned the shoe once its occupants were dead.
