At the end of the 1980s local campaigners tried to stop the labour dominated, hull city council from going ahead with one of its interminable construction schemes on a delightful area of green space (sorry can’t remember its name now - ‘something’ fields). We wrote our letters and published our magazines only to discover our position had been totally undermined by the prats in the regional branch of english nature (the organization may now be called something different) who decided the site wasn’t worth saving. The reason for this was because it was not deemed a good example of that particular type of habitat. English nature’s objective is to preserve the best examples of particular habitats around the country and it wasn’t bothered if development took place on less exemplary sites. This demonstrated clearly that this group of middle class, over cultivated, snotty ignoramuses had no understanding of the role of Photosynthesis in the Earth’s life support system nor did they have the slightest concept of the connection between ecological destruction and the Earth’s climate. The reason this organization was so stupid as to believe it could allow vast areas of the country’s life support system to be cemented and yet still preserve the unique nature of a tiny number of exemplary sites of scientific interest was because they were ecologists and had no understanding of geophysiology, the science of the Earth’s life support system. The science of ecology rarely ventures beyond the study of local habitats to understand the Earth as a whole. As far as ecologists are concerned the disappearance of innumerable local habitats around the country (and around the world) doesn’t have the slightest impact on the climate nor does it have any implications for the survival of their sacred sites.

“All nature reserves run by the royal society for the protection of birds were shut down for at least a week. The society has livestock on more than 60 of its sites and almost all having farming neighbours. National trust bosses closed all landscape parks containing livestock.”[74]

“The moneyed classes’ enthusiasm for Deer stalking is keeping vast tracts of scotland as an artificial, empty environment and preventing its productive use by ordinary people. Hayden lorimer, from loughborough university said, “Crofters had been cleared off by enclosures, and were replaced by huge Sheep farms. Deer stalking was only introduced in the 19thc after the Sheep farms went bankrupt. Landowners argued that the estates preserved scotland’s natural heritage. Mr lorimer said that to prevent criticism of their occupation of large estates kept empty just for Deer, the “lairdocracy” managed to propagate a myth of their history and legitimacy.”[75]

Despite organic farmers’ image as people who inflict no damage on the Earth’s life support system, there are examples to the contrary. Two advocates of organic pharming, charlie pye-smith and chris hall, suggest that in order to prevent chalk Grasslands from reverting back to Forests .. “from a conservation point of view .. we must either burn it regularly, as happens on many nature reserves, or it must be grazed. We favour the latter course.”[76] It is as if these authors have never heard of global burning or are so ignorant of geophysiological issues they believe Forests have no role in regulating the climate.

“For Thomas Hardy it was `the blasted heath', scene of thwarted passion in The Return Of The Native. To many people, it is simply a place to get away from crowded south-coast resorts for a breath of fresh air. But for naturalists, Britain's lowland heath is one of our most valuable habitats. Lowland heath is confined to the maritime, temperate parts of north-western Europe, such as southern Britain, western France, northern Spain, the Low Countries and southern Scandinavia. Heathland is formed as a combination of three main factors: light, sandy, acidic soils; the historical influence of man as an agent for clearing trees; and, perhaps most importantly of all, climate. According to Nigel Webb, author of the definitive study Heathlands (Collins New Naturalist No 72), the extent of heath correlates with what is known as the marginal western temperate climate. This is characterised by mild winters, warm damp summers and a low incidence of frost. Characteristic heathland plants thrive in this environment, thanks to their ability to resist drought. Heathland has its characteristic birds, such as stonechat, tree pipit and Dartford warbler; and also scarce reptiles, including the sand lizard and smooth snake. But the habitat that supports this wildlife may now be under threat. As global warming increases the length of the growing season in north-west Europe, pine and birch scrub may begin to take over heathland. Only careful management will contain this advance, and prevent us from losing this unique habitat.”[77]