The developers – shady looking characters

This is another illustration from my story Busy Bee and the Endangered Meadow. Some clever bees come up with the idea of disguising themselves as a rare and endangered species to stop Old Oak Meadow being built over with housing. The story is available from Amazon as an A4 printed version and ebook, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Busy-Endangered-Meadow-Paul-No%C3%ABl/dp/198320384X/, and as a 6″x9″ paperback, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Busy-Endangered-Meadow-Paul-No%C3%ABl/dp/B08BW5Y3CS/.

The UK has lost 97% of its meadows since the middle of the 20th century along with a large part of its farmland to unsuitable housing development all constructed around private car ownership. A truly unsustainable model for less than 0.1% of the global human population.

Obese urban sprawl endangers nature

If you look at the last 50 years or so you can see where we went wrong in the UK. Instead of tall garden cities where the air is clean and people walk, cycle or use public transport to move around, we have an obese urban sprawl that often reflects the waistlines of many of the people. Where we should have built up, we have built out. More little boxes, more sterile patches of mown grass, more roads and of course more cars. Our whole economy is geared to producing more and consuming more in an ever increasing attack on the diversity of nature. Whereas we could plan and work near we live everybody needs a car to get a decent job. Just check the motorways on any given morning. This pollution and waste of people’s lives could have all been avoided if we had designed a better built environment. If we are not careful our country may still be green but a green dessert devoid of diversity.

Mammals under threat in the UK

 

 

 

the Euro – written by Joseph Stiglitz

I really don’t understand economics. It seems to me that you could redesign the financial system to benefit everyone and not a small number of individuals. At the moment I’m reading this very readable book by Joseph Stiglitz. He explains why the Euro and Eurozone don’t work and won’t work. It is a very useful source of information and something that everyone who is a committed Remainer or Brexiter should read. Unfortunately, in this very polarized debate few will probably do so and allow their passion to rule their logic. Stiglitz explains why Europe isn’t good for countless Europeans and why and that austerity imposed by the troika of the ECB, IMF and EU cannot work and leaves many people in poverty and misery. The most pressing requirement for the EU is its reform and whether the UK leaves or remains this reform will not be forthcoming.

Guardian article on the Euro