What’s a badger 

by Peter Hanscomb

Climate Strike, the populist uprising in protest by young people around the world , started by Greta Thunberg from Sweden. A simple message , delivered by peaceful protest primarily aimed at political leaders and governments, run by and large by people of my generation.

The main course of concern, the damage we have allowed to happen to the fragile world we call home. It’s a message that by and large has fallen on deaf ears. Governments either lack political will or the resources to invest. All to often big business while paying lip service offering to reduce their environmental impact , and at the same time also fear not being able to appease shareholders, worried that spending  large sums will lead to investor rebellions.

The truth is it is our young people , the next generation who may well be left with the task of having  to reverse the damage. My fear is that while we have many good young environmentalists coming through , with a passion and understanding , for all to many the campaign itseft and the act of protest may be more important than the cause.

A recent survey in the U.K. of school children aged from 6 to 16 showed alarming results. It seems that natural history education and indeed connection with the natural world around us seems to be at an all time low.  50 % of those questioned didn’t know what a stinger nettle was, and 25% couldn’t describe what a badger looked like. Of course this shouldn’t come as a surprise in our modern sanitised world of tablets and mobile phones. On the bright side at least 75 % could describe a badgers form , but still how many have actually seen a real live wild badger.

If we can’t solve all of the worlds problems , perhaps we at least could help prepare the next generation, pass on Natural history knowledge and give these young people the tools to help them save the world. Perhaps local Natural history should be a compulsory part of school learning ?