An Introduction

As I write this, I feel a strengthening sense of hope. Our scientific understanding of what is happening to our world improves daily.  News feeds are dominated by climate change issues.  We know what we have to do.  The scientific evidence is stark.  Climate change will overwhelm our world if we do nothing.

I also feel at times that Ive left this book a bit late, both in the context of my lifetime and in the context of the Anthropocene. The moors in my beloved northern hills are burning in another drought. Time is something we do not have, to repair and reverse the huge amount of environmental damage our species has done to this, our shared world.

So I determined that I must do something, use my skills and knowledge to leave something behind. What is that, I wondered.

The answer is education. That is both here in print and out there in my field which is sustainable farming and our environment. Here we go.

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This is what this book is for. I want you to think, I want to provoke you to action. I want you to talk about this issue. I want you to change your lives.

On this journey you must trust the science, the facts and the data.  You may have differing opinions and disagree with me entirely, put the book down and walk away.  Remember in your outrage and offence that you are disagreeing with the vast majority of well researched and established science. What you are experiencing is a challenge to your opinions.

Your opinions are valid. Your doubts are unfounded. We are listening and we have answers for you that will challenge your opinions which in the face of the overwhelming body of science are incorrect.

My mission is to sway your opinion, maybe even change it. If I can do that, then the long hours put into this book have been worthwhile.

Remember also that science is always learning and will change.  Current developments in science are looking much more likely to reinforce the serious nature of our dilemma and point to growing difficulties ahead.

The state of our world isn’t someone else’s problem, it is ours and it is yours.  We need inspirational leadership at the highest level. That means exceptional leaders in Europe, Asia at the UN. Brave men and women at the helm on Brazil, Australasia and in Africa, maybe in the future even the USA.

Now the scene is set.  What are we about?  Who am I to lecture you, my reader?  If I have not yet frightened you away there must be an element of curiosity within you so lets change the world together. Read on.

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Even just ten years ago I didn’t have the experience that I have now or even the motivation to write this. Just ten years ago we as a race didn’t have all the facts we have now. In order to be a writer someone once told me “you must be a reader” and so I am. Two books I have read inform this work. In order they are “The Storyteller” by Mario Vargas Llosa and “White Beech” by Germaine Greer. Coincidentally they both feature rainforests.

That is where we shall begin.

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