Below are the five essays in our recent environmental essay competition which were close runners-up to the eventual winners.
Years 7 to 10 category
Why Should the Wild Boar be Introduced Back Into the Cotswolds?
By Kenya Morena Nogué
The wild boar (Sus scrofa) is an omnivorous, gregarious mammal closely related to the domestic pig. It was once a native animal but became extinct around 17th century due to their mass hunting by the rich classes over long periods of time, ever since the medieval era.
Wild boars are native across much of Europe, North of Africa and much of Asia, even as far as Indonesia. They have also been rehabilitated to other areas and is a common species in France. Wild boar breeding populations have returned in some areas of Great Britain and Ireland following the escapes from boar farms, where they were exported from the Continent to produce meat during the 1980s.
Wild boar introductory programmes have already been set up around Britain, with the population in the Forest of Dean being the largest. The programme was proved a success after the population rise in 2009.
These mammals have many positive impacts on our ecosystems and biodiversity.
Firstly, their feeding habits, wallowing (when they paw and roll on the ground) and rooting, are highly effective in creating space for trees and plants to grow. Wallowing benefits the boar since their lack of sweat glands means they cannot release internal heat as effectively as humans.
Wallowing can affect watersheds by muddying waters, creating bank erosion and algae blooms, also destroying aquatic vegetation, and decreasing livestock use and fish production. Boars will often wallow in moist areas such as ponds and creeks because they offer access to mud, however, this means that they add pathogens to the water resulting in the degradation of ecosystems. Their faecal contamination can also transmit pathogens with the potential to threaten agricultural productivity, wildlife, and limit human water resource.
As bad as the above sounds, this can be prevented by the consistent abatement efforts that are important is reducing the damages associated with wild pigs and can even lead to improved water pollution. In fact, many of the processes are already carried out with the different species so overall there wouldn’t be a more significant risk of illness or deterioration. Improved water pollution is a significant point since the United Nations (UN) has been trying to tackle Goal 6 (Water Pollution) as one of its 17 Climate Goals. The reestablishment could also help combat hunger since wild boars could be regulated and farmed for meat. Goal 15 (Life on Land) would also be improved in many ways.
Wallowing would assist many important ecosystem services since it contributes greatly to the richness of the soil and other organisms. In addition to digging up small invertebrates (worms, etc.), which serve as food for the birds, they favour the growth of the fern undergrowth and aid photosynthesis (the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize nutrients from carbon dioxide and water) because they feed on their rhizomes (a continuously growing horizontal underground stem which puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals) and increase the dispersal of their spores. Their importance is such that many bulbous and annual plants of great ecological importance are called “swine grasses” because they are dispersed thanks to the activity of the Sus scrofa. The earth being continuously stirred and oxygenated by the constant snuffing of these animals also favours the germination of the trees and shrubs.
The so called “bathtubs”, used by boars in their frequent antiparasitic mud baths and refreshments, are also of great ecological importance. Amphibians thrive in these areas, which they use as refuge and reproduction areas, and serves as rooting territories for various plant species. Both, in what would be true circular economy, later serve as food for the wild boar and other species.
Some members of the public aren’t pleased with the potential return of the wild boar; “Now, having settled in nicely, the wild boars find themselves accused of everything short of satanism. Walkers say they live in fear of boars attacking them or their dogs. Farmers complain of thousands of pounds' worth of damage done to crops, fences flattened, maize laid waste. Homeowners have their lawns dug up and their gardens destroyed. And many people fear what inevitably follows the boar: the poachers and the men with guns.” (The Guardian).
Since a full-grown sow can weigh more than 150kg, they can be an intimidating presence and therefore it’s only natural for people to be hesitant for us to reinhabit these animals, even if no wild boar will attack humans unless provoked. There isn’t a major danger posed by these animals as they are mainly nocturnal and have become more reclusive since their extinction. Yes, the wild boar is dangerous. But only if you’re dumb enough to go tromping in on them when they’re not expecting it. Otherwise, you just won’t see them.
Conflicts between humans and wildlife have been reported from all over the world and include problems such as attacks by predators on livestock, transmission of diseases from wild populations to domestic animals and humans, agricultural damage, and collisions with vehicles.
The global expansion of wild boars over the last few decades owing to species-specific biological factors (e.g., very high reproductive output and dispersal potential) has resulted in an increase in extent and distribution of damages to crops, placing a growing strain on agricultural producers and land managers. These factors, together with human population growth and the intensification of agricultural activities, have resulted in the escalation of human-wild boar conflicts. Damage to croplands is particularly intense, causing significant economic losses, which amount to hundreds of thousands of Euros per year in several European countries.
This can be battled through and there is a lot of data due to the fact that the species is so widely distributed. You could look at species distribution models to identify the areas with the highest likelihood for the presence of a species, and its relationships with environmental factors such as land use, topography (the arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features of an area), landscape features, climate and more. You can also employ the use of electric fences and odours to keep the boars away from crops and gardens. There is only a big argument with this animal because of its size and intimidatory bulk. Loads of animals forage and lounge in our gardens whilst we look on, they just don’t cause as much noticeable damage therefore we don’t react as strongly since we feel secure in their presence. This viewpoint needs to be changed if we wish to be able to successfully reintroduce these beautiful and environmentally providing species. And following the extinction of wolves and lynxes in the UK, boars have no natural predators except humans.
This poses the question:
“How will we manage to keep these animals in control, and should we also think of introducing a top predator in our pursuit of the reinstitution of wild boars?”
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Warming the World
By Ava Wilson
As humans we always think about our future. What will our jobs be? Where do we want to live? What will we look like in 5 years? But right now, more than ever that dream future you want is at stake. The darkest of our world's life is upon us. The Earth is dying and though that is a tough fact to face it is the truth and there is no more time for sweeping it under the rug. For each whale that's strung and each tree that’s cut a life is lost. When we cut down a tree for paper or palm oil CO2 is at an advantage. These wildfires, deforestation is a piece of the global warming puzzle that we have painted. That once prosperous Valhalla of peace for animals and humans a like is now turned into a farming junk yard and is a huge applicant to the methane gases that are rising into the atmosphere. But that destructive action is shown but there is one villain that hides in plain sight. Palm oil. From the moment we wake up and grab for our Kellogg's bowl of cereal to the Nestle chocolate we tuck into at night palm oil is an ingredient and we as consumers are part of the problem. And this is just one piece of the problem and in every story, humans are the big bad wolves that are going to blow the planet down.
Living in the Cotswold's we have a huge advantage we can go into the fields and breath in all the fresh oxygen and enjoy our time under the sun playing with the rabbits. Do you know what else is happening to rabbits? They are having makeup products tested on them from such brands like L’OREAL to Chanel which is not ok. How an animal is taken without their will and used in labs with horrible dangerous chemicals so we can have a nice face of makeup. However, we mustn't forget those amazing few who do not such as: The body shop, NYX and Elf who are helping those innocent animals. But one of my personal favorite animals are being tortured each day. Can you guess? Whales. These beautiful creatures are being poached like the millions of other species whether it is for food or fashion. We need whales to stay alive. When whales return to the surface to breath, they fertilize tiny marine plants called Phytoplankton which absorb 5x more CO2 than the amazon rainforest yearly.
Much like the whales there are thousands of marine creatures who benefit us to keep them alive and we don’t even know it because we are too busy killing them. We kill 2.7 trillion fish each year that is equivalent to 5 million a minute, so it is no wonder that scientists predict that by 2048 we will have empty oceans and 90% of coral will be gone by 2050 even right now there is 150 million tons of plastic in the ocean. That to me is heartbreaking. If the ocean ends, then so do, we because it contains 93% of our carbon dioxide. We are the means to our own end. Fishing nets our biggest weapon. Daily we let out the same length of fishing nets that could wrap round our planet 500x round. Those same nets when they are used to kill 9000 seals and many more living creatures. #Plasticstraws is all over the internet, but plastic straws only kill 1000 turtles a year. Were as 250,000 turtles are killed by fishing nets yearly and yet no one is talking about that. So, if that is the damage they are doing when they are thrown away what are they doing when they are in use. Bottom trolling the ocean and making it a ghost land, stripping it of all life, let me put that into figures: 25 million acres of rainforest are cut down yearly that’s equivalent to 27 football pitches a minute but bottom trolling wipes out 3.9 billion acres of marine life yearly that’s equivalent to 4,316 football pitches every minute, but no one is stopping it. Even in the pacific garbage ocean patch which is 1.6 WHICH SONOSmillion kilometers long 46% of waste is fishing nets. All because businessmen want to make money put even that is poisoned as the fishing industries make $35,000,000,000 yearly but the UNICEF organization recons world hunger could be stopped completely with only $30,000,000,000. So, with all this evidence why aren't we doing something? But there are things we can do we can do we can eat less fish and do beach clean ups and convince businesses to us biodegradable nets or packaging, swap from plastic to reusable. We can make a difference no one can do everything, but everyone can do something.
Our communities need to force together and stop using plastic and other killer substances our schools can take us on nature walks and help us plant more trees so we can learn to take care pf our earth. We can even do things at home. Now I am not going to say never eat meat again. Never drive your car again. Not to buy that leather jacket you have wanted for ever. But instead, I will tell you swap a couple meat meals for vegetarian ones. Ride your bike to work on nice days and when you buy a new car consider electric. Trade that leathers jacket for a vegan leather one. Store insulation in your house to stop heat escaping the possibilities are endless we just must try. I want to mention a very big influencer to me a marine biologist Sylvia Haerle who has dedicated her life to saving our oceans and has done so much for us. This topic is important to me as it should be to everyone, and I hope we can make a difference even a small one and save the Earth because there is no Planet B.
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Why We Should Reintroduce Fairies to the Cotswolds
By Beatrix Rose-Leahy
Over time the British countryside has lost a lot of wildlife. This has been for many reasons. During the 1960s pesticides were found to be responsible for the demise of the Sparrowhawk. Indeed the research into this was carried out not far away in Wytham Woods. DDT was used to control agricultural pests and was linked with the development of very thin egg shells and the failure of chicks to hatch successfully. Of course the use of DDT had most impact on insects, and although DDT has been outlawed in the UK since the 1980s it still impacts on some fish species. This is not unique. It is reported that one third of bee populations in the UK have vanished in just a decade, largely due to the use of nionicitinoids to control pests of sugar beet. Bees are essential for pollination of many plants, and even though neonicitinoids have been banned since 2018 in the EU they are about to be approved by the UK government again thanks to the removal of so-called 'EU red tape'. Other factors impacting on our natural environment and the species that live there include changing farming practices dating right back to the enclosure acts, deforestation and changes in predation as man has released domesticated animals such as pet cats into the environment.
It is very appealing to restore our natural environment to resemble the UK before the negative impact of mankind. The caimaigner, author and journalist George Monbiot advocates 'rewilding', even reintroducing wolves to the UK. Maybe this could work in remote areas of Scotland, however we must appreciate that in most of the UK what we term as the 'natural environment' is the result of human management, and not entirely natural. Simply reintroducing species that previously lived in certain areas may not be appropriate. Given this concern, serious consideration is needed.
By definition the term 'reintroduce' means that we will be introducing a species to the Cotswolds that is no longer there, but once lived there. Recent succesful examples of reintroductions to the UK have included that of the Sea Eagle to the West Coast of Scotland, the Red Kite to the Chiltern Hills, and more locally the Large Blue buterfly which was succesfully reintroduced to Rodborough Common in Gloucestershuire in 2019. This work shows that species long lost from a region can be succesfully reintroduced.
When considering which species I would like to introduce I initially considered dinosaurs such as the Megalosaurus which were present in Stow on the Wold one hundred and seventy million years ago. I also looked into the practicalities of reintroducing mammoths. Both are present in the fossil record of the region. On reflection I believe that returning such creatures to the Cotswolds might be problematic because they are likely to cause crop damage in a similar way to elephants which can come into conflict with subsistence farmers in India. This was wonderfully described in Nicola Davis's book 'The Elephant Road'. Moreover, as dinosaurs and mammoths would never have encountered a road before thay might cause accidents with cars or other vehicles with a bad outcome for all those involved. Perhaps reintroducing these species would prove to be problematic. I considered the reintroduction of the Sabre Toothed Tiger, but again I am certain that conflict with humans would result, particularly if the sabre toothed tigers began eating farmers' cattle, or even the farmers themselves. In this resepct it might be almost as challenging to introduce the wolf. While it has been suggested by rewilders to introduce wolves to the Scotish Highlands the impact of wolves on Cotswolds agriculture would be unnaceptably high, particularly were wolves to eat lambs or children.
Manipulating the environment or changing the natural communities within an ecosystem can result in unwanted side effects. One example is the impact of predators on ground nesting birds. If we consider the curlew, many nests eggs and young are lost to sileage mowing, but the impact of Foxes and Badgers feeding on Curlew eggs is also significant. Therefore, if we reintroduced species such as the Wolverine or Pine martin, which I regard as beautiful animals, we may inadvertantly threaten other indigenous species.
It is for these reasons that I decided to not to limit myself to animals that appear in the fossil record of the area, but also to look into publications which record species which seem to have long dissapeared. One of these publications, called simply 'Folklore' describes in volume 124 the presence of fairies, the species I would like to reintroduce. Other old publications from the Stroud area also record the presense of fairies. They report that 'a rare species, previosuly believed to be extinct in the UK, has been discovered in the small Cotswolds town of Stroud' and go on to point out that, while fairies are believed to be extinct for many hundreds of years, new evidence in the form of a series of photographs have been found to prove their existence. The photographs found in an old suitecase in an attic show the creatures living at Fennels Farm near Stroud. It seems, however, that there have been no recent sightings. Given that fairies are not well represented in the fossil record, it was very fortunate that these photographs were found, proving that fairies did indeed once inhabit the Cotswolds.
Accepting that there has been no evidence of fairies inhabiting the Cotswolds for some years I scoured the available literature until I discovered the Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Limerick called Cal McCrystal. Professor McCrystal studies rare populations of fairies in Ireland, and is leading a team of researchers to locate, verify and protect a population of fairies which are believed to be living in woodlands at the top of Slad Valley. If there is found to be no evidence of fairies still living in the Slad Valley I would like to obtain a small number of this species from Ireland, and reintroduce them to the Cotswolds. Professor McCrystal has explained that “A fairy's natural habitat is in damp mossy woodland”. Therefore it seems that the woodland around the Slad Valley would be perfect. Another ideal location might be the beech woodland around Bucks Head Farm near Birdlip on the Cotswold escarpment, and a little closer to Burford would be the overgrown railway cutting at Chedworth, which already boasts some fairy glens. Because of the geology of the area the cutting has plenty small caves for the fairies to make their home, and the microclimate has resulted in a beautiful area of moss covered trees.Certainly, we would need to establish breeding populations in habitats known to be suitable before reintroducing fairies closer to Burford because of the agricultural nature of the area surrounding the town. The impact of herbicides and pesticides on fairy populations has not been extensively studied, is poorly understood, and not recorded in scientific literature.
Of course, we must appreciate that in the wild fairies do not behave in the way that is shown in the popular media. Not only are they reported to be incredibly secretive they can be very naughty. McCrystal states that “not all have the sweet childlike personas we give them in modern chidrens' story books today”. Apparently they often give travellers the wrong directions, turn sign posts around and cause mischief, but as with any reintroduction to the natural environment minor undesireable side effects are almost guaranteed. At least fairies are likely to be less problematic than marauding six metre long, seven hundred kilogram Megalosauruses.
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Years 11 to 13 Category
At a crossroads: what might happen if we don’t tackle climate change now
By Mimi Beale
Climate change is defined as a long-term shift in global or regional climate patterns. It is often associated with the rise in global temperatures from the mid-20th century.
I always knew about climate change, but I never realised how much climate change was a problem until I grew up and started seeing the problems around me become increasingly more significant. I grew up in Melbourne, Australia and I will always remember turning on the news at age five to see Black Saturday, a catastrophic fire situated in my home state of Victoria. Although started by arson it was clearly exasperated by climate factors as it burned through 4,500 square kilometres of bushland, 3,500 properties and killed 173 Australians as well as their pets and livestock. This was relatively scary at the time but now it has become so prominent in our world and in Australia itself, that we are somewhat less shocked and, in a way, desensitised to both the cause and effect of the problem we have created. That in itself is the real issue.
We know that climate change is occurring yet so many people choose to ignore the facts, do nothing or lack the education needed to fully understand the problem. Climate change has devastated everyone, plants, animals and humans and taken too many lives via horrific natural disasters. 20 million people a year are forced from their homes due to climate change and this will only increase over time as it gets worse. In fact, there has been an 83% increase in the number of known climate change related natural disasters from 1980 to 2019. This statistic is frightening as it is presumed the volume and frequency of such events will only increase. Not only this, but thousands more species will be at risk of being wiped out from human actions, such as the exploitation of fossil fuels to power our Earth and the increase in carbon emissions.
To fully understand what the effect of climate change is we first need to understand its cause and why fossil fuels are to blame. Fossil fuels come in three forms; oil, coal and gas. Burning these release substances like water vapour, nitrogen oxides, methane, chlorofluorocarbons and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, helping to trap radiation which would otherwise be reflected off the Earth’s crust. This is why we are seeing increasing average temperatures all over the world and severe changes in weather patterns like increasing numbers of hurricanes in tropical regions of the world, increasing numbers of fires (even in places which previously weren’t of concern), melting ice and closer to home, extreme flooding. Rising temperatures are causing increasing volumes of ice in the polar regions to melt away, destroying both unique habitats for polar bears (who are dependent on the ice for survival) and increasing the volume of liquid water on our planet. If you watch the news you may have seen the severe floods across the country early this year and this is the reason why. Fossils Fuels.
So, what would happen if we kept allowing climate change to occur at its current rate? The simple answer is it would get a lot worse for all of us. According to NASA at our current rate we can expect sea levels to rise 8 feet by 2100, the Artic to become ice free, more intense hurricanes, increased droughts and heat waves with fewer cold periods, changes in precipitation patterns and the mean world temperature to rise considerably from 1 to 3 degrees, a 200% increase. Higher temperatures would mean an increased chance of a tan (which I’m sure we’d all love) but unfortunately the overall effects would be horrific for Earth.
We would see organisms like polar bears looking for new habitats and being forced onto the mainland among humans and also changes in Artic bird’s migration patterns who would be forced to take different routes looking for more suiting habitats. The list of species that will be affected would be endless.
This is a massive issue and we can’t solve it alone, therefore we all need to do our part, working as a collective to stop climate change and slow its effects on our beautiful planet. After all we only have one planet and 97% of scientists have come to the conclusion it’s our fault, so we need to start now.
At an individual level we can all help by reducing our energy consumption, recycling and limiting our carbon footprint as well as many other things. Planting trees can help too, for every 100 years a tree is alive, one tonne of carbon emissions can be offset through the biological process of photosynthesis. It is estimated we have around 3.04 trillion trees on our planet which currently equivalates to 422 trees for every human alive today. However, this isn’t enough, a human offsets 1,540 tonnes of carbon over their lifetime which is almost 3.6 times more than each person’s set of trees can deal with. Our population will only increase and so this is another issue. It has been estimated that roughly 15 billion trees are cut down each year with only a third of these being replaced with new seedlings. At the current rate it is estimated that within 300 years there will be no trees left, leaving our great grandchildren wondering what it meant to breathe fresh air or any oxygen at all. Plants produce the oxygen we breathe by converting all the carbon we produce, it’s ironic that we are cutting down the thing we are so dependent on and feeding them at the same time. Therefore, planting trees isn’t the singular answer we would all love to have.
Other answers to climate change are being rapidly developed by scientists all over the world. One amazing example is the futuristic trees being made by BioUrban which run on solar energy and are paired with microalgae. Standing at 4.2 metres tall and 3 metres at its widest, a single tree costs around $50,000 and is made out of steel bands. They work by catching gases and particles from the air which then act as a food source for the microalgae allowing them to grow, and therefore can produce even more oxygen by converting these gases. One algae tree is the equivalent to 368 eucalyptus trees and can filter 99.7% of the particles it captures. As well as this it has been estimated that one tree can filter around 13 million cubic metres of air per year. The trees also produce a by-product of microalgae waste which can then be used as biofuels or fertilizers, making this a great new product for cities lacking the space needed to plant real trees. Right now there are three trees set up in Mexico city where over 3 million cars are producing majority of the cities pollution. Here schools are frequently closed and citizens are often told to stay inside due to the extremely high pollution levels. Although expensive new inventions like these may be the key to sustaining our place on this planet and we will soon see if they are the answer we so desperately need.
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“You've just been given a farmer's field near your house. What will you do with it?”
By Luca-Louis Scott
A day in the life of ...
Dear Diary,
What a coincidence! Last year I was given my first allotment - number 77 Fowler’s Lot (well, more of a field) together with an old shed and cracked greenhouse.
It hasn't been used for years. So, where should I begin? There's an Orchard with an apple, pear and cherry trees providing fruit, shade and shelter for wildlife. I'll add two more National Trust crab apple trees for a fiver each then fix a nesting box to one of the larger ones at the end of the row. There's even an elderflower tree for cordial – a family favourite! According to her it’s medicinal and the flowers are aromatic. I won't tell you what happened when she made lime flower tea!
I plan to keep a set-aside strip and hedgerow habitat for the flora and fauna. This should maintain the natural food chain amongst the species. There's even an Owl box in the barn overlooking a plot which attracts the natural predator of rodents and mice into the cycle, as well as that fox I found kipping in the long grass.
For water conservation I decided to mend the shed-guttering first and found some old aromatherapy drums for a water butt. A pipe leads from one to the other to collect maximum rainwater.
As for the greenhouse - now for a piece of science about climate change and global warming, L’effet de Serre (just decided to drop in some French)! The Earth's atmosphere lets through long wavelengths of light emitted from the Sun causing radiation and heating back and forth from Earth’s surface, which is trapped in the atmosphere making us all too hot and causing drought. Without it, we’d have another Ice Age. Now we have too much greenhouse gas which prevents radiation from being reflected back into space. This is because the atmosphere is full of CO2 and CH4 from our cars and cows farts according to the geography teacher. The ideal solution although easier said than done, is to travel on foot or on my bike; grow more green plants and stop eating meat.
The equation for animal respiration is:
602 + C6H12O6 -> 6C02 + 6H2O + energy.
Maybe I could set up a green gym with my bike in the Glass House. Then I'll get fit and benefit my plants at the same time. I would be giving them what they need!
The equation of plant respiration is:
6CO2 + 6H20 +sunshine makes C6H12O6 + 6O2 .
That represents plant sugars and oxygen which is released into the atmosphere. Just what we need to counter global warming. What does that mean for the tomato plants? Maximum yield. It's not rocket science!
The older generations on neighbouring plots still use pesticides and maximum nitrates, ploughing the land annually and releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. This is probably from the days of WWII when food was in short supply and everyone made their gardens into vegetable plots. My grandma was a Land army girl and their slogan was ‘dig for victory’ but I think it was organic digging in those days and ploughing with horses. Who knows the history behind the land I’ve been given?
Seriously, the harm these chemicals cause the environment is enormous. Nitrates provide plants with nitrogen that they could not otherwise get from the atmosphere. There’s 78% nitrogen in the air we breathe. The chemical nitrates used in farming are made by the Haber process mixing hydrogen and nitrogen gases under 200 atms pressure and 450 degrees centigrade. The organic alternative to man-made nitrates is manure and compost as these rotting materials decompose to create water-soluble nitrates which are readily absorbed by root hair cells. Where was I? Oh yes, nitrates increase protein production in the plant giving maximum crops of grain. I prefer the Organic no-dig method because the downside of my neighbours’ pesticides is to kill the animal and fungal habitat naturally occurring in the soil. Artificial nitrates leach into rivers and aquifers causing overgrowth of algae which darken and harm the waters for pond life survival – that’s eutrophication. Instead, the largest section of my plot will be planted in rotation starting with early cropping spuds and spring wheat; followed by sweet corn. I will probably net up my cabbages to keep butterflies and caterpillars out and use eggshells to stop those pesky slugs from eating new shoots. Have you ever examined a snail shell closely? These molluscs are a perfect example of Fibonnacci’ sequence.
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 and so on. This creates the perfect spiral found in Nature.
As far as variation of species and plant genetics go, I discovered a wild yellow lupin lupin plant from bygone days and saved some of its pea-like seeds. I expected all the young plants to be yellow- flowered but no, they were all purple. Why? I thought of my biology lessons and J Mendel’s genetic experiments. It must be that the yellow flowers are the recessive allele meaning that further crosses would be necessary before I get another yellow plant.
And now for a break and a cuppa. Out with the deck chair and the hammock slung between two trees. I might draw on my RE lessons and a little Buddhist Meditation ‘Ohm Shanti Shanti ----- The Buddha states, ‘harm no living thing’. If we do not abide by the five Moral precepts then ‘we dig up our own root’. I think he was probably right.
Celebrated mentors, such as the late Duke of Edinburgh and of course Sir David Attenborough, have inspired many of my generation to become guardians of our Planet and the species with whom we share it.
The spare time during my GCSEs and ‘lockdown’ time during this extraordinary pandemic has given me a chance to use the topics I have learned, to plan an eco-friendly and sustainable plot of land for the future and a small contribution to saving our Planet.
Signing off for now,
Catch you tomorrow!
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