Thursday 13 June 2019

Drought, heatwave, food scarcity, water and politics

Just when cattle start dying, or killed early due to food shortage  do politicians and media begin to listen to the real problems that Climate Change is presenting to us as a country and peoples.

A little has changed since the 1976 drought, when we had similar problems  mainly due to lack of stored water which is to some extent the same today, it was mainly arable farmers who stored water from winter and rivers, but the hills and highlands did not take the same action  and now are regretting it.

Winter storage on the small rivers streams and springs would have made a huge difference now for the irrigation of the hills but also to prevent flooding downstream by delaying the water on its rush to the sea.

Now we must awake from our simplistic view of farming as its been done for the last few hundred years and we have to really rethink what we are doing and whether it is sustainable for the local area and the wider national and global picture.

Rewilding is a part of any picture , but its the whole way farming has taken overthe land and denuded it  so we have to rethink and reestablish much of what has been destroyed by our behaviour of the past and present.

Surely when the landscape was once of forest and now it it is rolling hills full of sheep and cattle , Are we not guilty of this change ?
reforestation is key and must take over vast swaths of countryside as quickly as possible,  If landowners fail they should have their land stripped from them an put into state  assets.

Land ownership is only a form of lease on the land  for set purposes, and if it is abused   It should be returned to its most natural state as soon as possible at the cost of the previous owner if there are any assets to be had.

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