THE FUTURE?

You are like that government campaign sign: STOP! THiNK!

Côr O’na: Sing our way out of here!

My fear is that it’ll get to a point where it’ll be too late. By that time, when people say oh no we have to do something, we should have started 30 or 40 years ago.

It’s like a different world now [3 weeks into the coronavirus] on so many different levels. Its like we should be like this anyway, like we are focusing on the things that are important - the things that keep us alive. We are so lucky to be here, and to be here now. Go back to the 1920s without technology and it’d been really different, or in other places where people are really suffering, or here where people are worrying about money… but we are all pulling together aren’t we? I do get annoyed though, I saw people in Wilkes buying lava lamps. I mean who needs a lava lamp right now? Its not essential. Buying bread, that’s essential. I just hope in the future we rethink what we do, that we see what the important things are, and stop doing so much travel and buying and being so busy all the time.

I really hope we’ll never go back to how it was before [2 weeks into the coronavirus). Surely, surely, people can see that this is showing us how we can change? That pollution is down. Traffic is down. People are helping each other. We are remembering what it is to be neighbourly. I think people are really enjoying it, I think they are realising that we’d lost the plot.

I suppose its the creation of what you might call consensus or what you might even call a morality, because our morays do change and evolve. And its that central place - where what most of us think for the most part think we should be - that will be matter and set the tone for the next few years or the next generation or whatever… Things could get really, really bad. And they could get better as well.

It’s interesting to think about – it’s a lot of food for thought really. You don’t often sit down and think well, what’s happening here….

We are too alienated from each other in terms of our involvement in the decisions that affect us - in Scotland there is more about communities taking a role in deciding what goes on.

I’d like to see more of these sorts of conversations with farmers - I’m not saying farmers would go to meetings or anything, but just 1:1 conversations, being more respectful, working with farmers rather than assuming they are the enemy. We want to do the right thing!

It’s been uncertain for ages. I don’t think anyone - if they are honest - knows what to do. I think we need to just start trying different things, experiment, see what works and what doesn’t.

I’d like to see more of a sense that we believe we could head for a consensus on what to do. Rather than assuming we are all in conflict.

There’s no point worrying about it. We can prepare. Preparation is all we can do. Teach your children.

We are not going to stop climate change. It’s here. And in our lifetime I don’t think we are going to reverse it. Because no one is listening yet who has any power to do anything about it. I don’t use plastic. I do those kinds of things. I turn the lights off more than I used to. I try to make my kids more aware. I’m beginning to be aware that we are refugees from our lifestyle.

I think generally my head environmental wise thinks more globally… yeah, I haven’t really thought of it in terms of here. I don’t know why.

I’m quite pessimistic about it. Its optimistic that people are thinking about it. But I’m pessimistic in that I think it’ll have to get to the point where it gets so bloody awful before people will do something. When climate chanage is impacting severely on things like share prices, that’s when businesses will start to do something.

Something I feel guilty about – this prepping thing. The awareness of how bad it might get in the future, whether that is true or not, the environmental crisis, the feeling of impending doom, I feel guilty about it. Am I doing enough to secure the future, what things should I be doing, a list of things I should be doing, averting a crisis but a crisis that you are not sure when or how it will present itself and so how to prepare for it.

Asking people “would you like to do something in the valley vis a vis the anthropoocene, the biosphere, the economics, whatever”… and in some respects in preparation: I don’t know how this rainfall is going to go. If this keeps going for 40 days and 40 nights do we need to be getting up the back now and filling in all the ditches and putting those leaky dams in etc.

I don’t understand what these institutions are trying to do. Why don’t they ask us? And don’t you work for these sorts of institutions? Have you got a hidden agenda?

We are just here, enjoying all that life throws at us. So much joy. We cope, adapt, pointy, feathery massing. Keep low.

No rational human being would say ‘oh we’ve got to take it back to how it was’. Its not that. I think there needs to be a balance. As soon as possible, a serious look at how we reforest as much as we can for the sake of all these things – including flood alleviation. To get pockets of it – not everywhere – pockets of it how it was so at least it can begin to redress the balance, and have carbon sinks and that sort of thing. Every county and village can do that.

I would like to make a virtual reality version of what this valley would be like if it was greened. Pockets of trees here and there, better grazing land in between. Ok, so put your glasses on, have a wander around. What would it look like?

Obviously not everyone can say I despair and not do anything about it. You can support and go on marches and show solidarity, sign petitions, but effort in, do bits of work for free. Maybe we should brand the future as local – a sort of global local. Its difficult to not see the future pesimistially as a post -apocalyptic nightmare. If you have places that become an oasis, with a break-down of society, it’ll become attractive to everyone, and everyone will want to be there. We are all complicit. XR have just been put on the terrorist list. You can’t help but think that global capitalist elitism is bent on global destruction. Why can’t they see that?

I’m sure we could get people together to do our own transport and parking plan. I could get a transport economist without any trouble. Let’s get cracking on that. We could essentially do a parallel piece of work to the National Park - we engage with people in Nant Peris - mapping the fine detail of what’s going on. It’s trying to anticipate where they are going to crew it up. Studies like this could be done on lots of things like air bnbs. The thing is to just get on with it.

I firmly believe in encouraging any community anywhere in the world - any people who occupy the same location - to observe the natural dynamics that are in their landscape. And more closely they observe, the more closer their relationship. Just invite people who live in a place to observe the things that go on, without a thought of doing anything. It has to be a leveller. No-one could say I own that bullfinch, I have a bigger right, even if i know of the dynamic of say a hazel tree, i don’t have the right to say what to do with it before observing it. Then it could be a conversation between people of what is the greatest bounty and abundance - I would frame it without our blame, without blaming us for anything. I’d try and do that being really careful about the language, so none of us are anything other than companions in our landscape. We have the capacity to share the recording and converse about it: we are all equal.

There’s a whole bag of things that are possibilities. But its like well, if the whole subsidy regime is changing for the farmers, perhaps that represents a huge opportunity, a fantastic time for people to get together to consider whatever. I don’t see it as saying we should be doing this or this, but to discuss. Step one is to talk. That’d be really good, I don’t know quite what the forum is or how big the forum is, but its quite important that it is engaging and its open and its transparent. So you don’t get the same old folks necessarily doing their civic duty and everyone else at home with the tele.

So no particular agenda, I think as soon as you start with oh we’ve got a project to do X, it presupposes that we are bumping into the end-state fallacy. And the place if you are going to get motivation, enthusiasm, engagement and all that stuff, you need to talk first, chat first and then see ok.. some it if would potentially be a forum for doing stuff that’s not necessarily… like re-doing that bridge on the path. It doesn’t have to all be heroic stuff. It could be lots of fun stuff as well. But I’d be open minded to whatever that is. I’d be fascinated as to what people found.

I think with this virus, that we are going to have to be different in the future. I think it’ll change how we feel about everything pretty much. I hope so anyway. We’re all seeing what it is like to not do so much, not travel - I’ve cancelled all my holidays and I’ll just stay here. i know we’re the lucky ones, being able to do that. But others are not so lucky. Some people aren’t thinking that this is a big change, they think it’ll all go back to how it was. They think they can just carry on. It’s like a big wake-up call.

I would diversify. Diversification gives resilience. Diversification of the people, of land. Maybe this is one of the problems with our society is that you are kind of channeled to specialize into one thing and then you have this narrow look on the world as well. But if you do lots of different things you are more flexible. And also you are not then stuck in that one role, of being a specialist. And then if you are more diverse, you might even get some fusion between different things and get something out of that.

The thing about thinking to the future is that people need to care for each other and care for nature as well, care for what’s round them. Not always be thinking of somewhere else. Improve the soil beneath their feet. Make the earth better. It’s about connecting…I notice that people don’t join the dots at all.

See suggestions for things to do here