Conflict(ed)

I can't resist filming... but I only start after the very funniest parts have already happened and then I go on to miss the best bits either as I switch off or have the camera pointing in the wrong direction.

On conflict, Baptiste Morizot's book has been super interesting. You can listen to a guy talk about it here... in between describing where he is.... Anyway, I really liked it and one idea really struck me. The idea of a "diplomat", interceding on behalf of interdependences. Here's a quote:

He is for living weavings, against everything that devitalizes them. The diplomat is here a radical, working for the relation, he is the guardian of the point of view of the relation. The interests of interdependence will come first, at the risk of making enemies among members of both sides who think only in terms of the interests of their side. This diplomat must serve to bring interdependences into our struggles for the fabric of life. He is an avatar of the thousand metamorphoses of the living world as it defends itself.

The idea is that the diplomat is FOR the richness of the world. She appreciates that shepherds have an interest in their sheep, for tradition and financial security - and affection and that wolves have an interest in keeping themselves and their cubs fed. Meanwhile, the pasture can be destroyed by being grazed to the roots. If it is healthy, there's a lot of plants, soil creatures, pollinators, small birds and mammals... the sheep graze the meadow which is fine. Even better, the wolves move the sheep on, prevent them over-grazing or becoming too numerous. In this case, the wolves support the interdependences. the diplomat too will be for the interdependences - but she acknowledges that humans and their sheep are as much "part of nature" as wolves and wildflowers. You don't eradicate them, but they need to be in there supporting the interdependences.

Baptiste offers a way to think about deer over-browsing woodland to the detriment of regeneration and wildflowers and invertebrates and all the small creatures that are supported by them.

But then, of course, comes the crunch. What do you do? Cull the deer?? Ideally bring in wolves and lynx.

And as for us, well, how much do any of us benefit the interdependences? People with allotments and wild(ish) gardens are about the best of us.

Anyway, this subject strained me a little during the excellent symposium I attended. There was so much focus on companion and domestic animals. If they had their way, I think the world would be filled with dogs, cats, rescued cows, pigs, sheep and chickens... A denuded landscape and secret factories making cat food. Never mind the wild birds, rabbits, hares, badgers and so on. The conversation always seems, ultimately, to be just a larger circle of empathy that includes the animals we "know" well and feel sorry for. There is little consideration of a healthy planet - the systems are forgotten. The interdependences ignored.

In reality, the likes of bees and springtails are what it's all about.

We used to say, "Care for the pennies and the pounds look after themselves." The failure to do that is maybe another cause for the environmental crisis.