China and Japan going to war?

 

I note that the dispute between these two countries over several small islands is escalating.

We have learned repeatedly from history that brinkmanship can, on the back of some small incident, cascade a dispute into unintentional outright warfare. It would be a tragedy if this were to happen yet again and young men and women were sent out once more to kill each other – over what – a few small islands! And on the wider world picture will the USA be drawn into this issue? And what attitude will Korea (North or South) take towards this difficulty close to them?

Both China and Japan need help to draw back from this dispute without either losing face.

The solution does not necessarily have to be left to politicians, which in the end can easily fail to achieve a peaceful outcome. We have learned that too from history.

But what if we, citizens of the world, in our hundreds of thousands, and indeed in numbers greater than that, were to partition both countries to agree that the disputed islands and the surrounding seas should be turned into a national park to be run jointly by both countries or under the management of the United Nations? 

This would lance the boil of ‘ownership’ and allow these two fine countries to remain at peace.

We could achieve this up-welling of world opinion towards such a solution and succeed in persuading both countries towards this compromise – provided we join our voices in sufficient numbers to make this peaceful outcome for these islands inevitable.

If reading this and are in agreement with the sentiment expressed, you might wish to re-tweet and re-blog to others this idea and that they in turn would be encouraged to contact others still to generate a chain reaction around the world towards this cause – would that not be a noble thing that all of us would have engaged in? China and Japan – and wildlife too would benefit from this effort from all of us.  

Together such an opinion expressed by great numbers of people could make the difference by allowing these two countries to see a practical alternative to war.

 

Patrick.

What’s in a name – well, a lot really!

 

Recently I published a book – PLANET DANCING. It is about conserving nature. It contains six large ideas how we, all of us, on a world scale, might become involved. The book has a number of illustrations that are clearly of a wildlife nature. The cover too has a wildlife look to it. All of that should suggest that the subject matter is nature conservation.

Wrong.

In one shop the book found its way onto the ‘Astronomy’ shelf. In another it was placed in ‘Geology Section‘.  In a university bookshop it was proudly displayed under ‘Arts and Dance’.

I offer this to those who are contemplating writing books on non-fiction. Be extremely careful that your title does not mis-lead. Hope this is of help to some.

Regards

Patrick 

Children and Conservation – a World Dance-Day for Nature!

 

Clearly we are not winning the battle to conserve species. At this stage, to shake all of us out of our lethargy, we need a world event for nature.

What if we were to pick a day and on that day let the children of the world dance for nature? Let them dance in their own country but let them know that children in other countries are dancing too. Let them know that English children and Dutch children and Japanese children and American children are dancing on that day.   

Let them know that they dance for the joy of being children; that they dance in the delight of their own existence; that they dance to celebrate Nature in all her wonders. And perhaps, we reserved adults that we are, might dance a little as well.

We should dance for the starfish.  We should dance for the snow worms and the musk turtles and the silence of the great whales.We should dance for the symmetry of tuna and the beauty of sea hares.We should dance for the snipefish and the magpie larks. We should dance for the ice fields of Antarctica.

We should dance too a requiem for the species that tried and failed. We should dance for the Great Auk, the Japanese Wolf, the Labrador Duck, the Elephant birds, the Quagga and the Giant Irish Deer. We should dance too in remembrance of species we have recently driven to extinction – even before we had time to give them the dignity of names.  

 

And when the dancing stops we should cheer with the joy of knowing that all the children of the planet, and some adults too, danced that things be made better for nature: That we become aware that planet-wide movements for nature are now needed if conservation is to become significant.  Such a Nature day would be worthy of remembrance.

Patrick