Oh the glorious, the amazing, the beautiful, the incredible ocean, down whose waves I rush, speeding across clear water I see seaweed, little fish, clean sandy bottom, until I arrive near the shore, steer my board to the left or right, slide off, and rush back out to do it all over again.
I have found a very deserted little back-road called Island Road, a cul-de-sac, 1.6 miles to the end and back, so if I run this twice it will be 5 km. I think I need to run on a real road if that is what the race will be on. It seemed, driving it today, like an awfully long way, just once, let alone running it twice! Tomorrow morning will be the test, and my stomach trembles at the thought.
Solar power, it's what we want, isn't it, renewable energy from the sun? Better than mining coal, better for the environment? Well, it's not so simple, actually. I listened to a programme on a planned large-scale (huge - thousands of acres) solar development in the Panoche Valley in California, with a semi-desert micro-climate. The company states that the solar panels will provide shade for grazing sheep and the panels will collect moisture for plant growth around them.
However, an Environmental Impact Assessment has recently been done on this land and evidence of many species has been found, including some endangered species. So now the residents of the valley are up in arms, protesting this development of 16 000 acres. And so there will be prolonged court cases etc., for years to come, and it may never get going.
I don't know which side I am on, because on the one hand I am for the animals and plants, the wild land, but on the other, I am for renewable energy, which I believe is the answer, or one of the answers, something that will go a small way to perhaps healing some of what we have done to the earth. The company, Solargen, has offered to buy up 12 000 acres of adjacent land so that all the animals can go there, but really, how does one accomplish that? By telling all the displaced animals, "Hey, look, just over that hill, there's another 12 000 acres just for you!"
Where I grew up, where we had that magical childhood, was in a Garden City called Pinelands, a place first envisaged by a man called Ebenezer Howard, who grew up during the Second Industrial Revolution in England, which began with the invention of steam-powered ships, trains and such. Studying the monotony, grime and ugliness of the industrial towns, he envisioned homes for people on the outskirts of these towns, which incorporated gardens and other green spaces. He wanted to replace tenements with homes standing on their own grounds, he believed that people would be better off if they maintained that important link with nature, so his idea would connect town and country.
In 1918, the Spanish Influenza pandemic raged through Cape Town and a Mr Richard Stutterford became interested in Howard's ideas, as he believed that the death toll could have been much lower with different housing. He put forth his idea to the govt of the time, and eventually, in 1919, he was given a pine plantation called Uitvlugt, which became the beautiful suburb of my childhood, where every street had a pretty name, none of which ended in "Street". The roads were called, "Pleasant Place", "Forest Drive", "North Way", "Serpentine" "The Bend". And everywhere there were open green leafy spaces. I played for hours in "The Field" behind my house, rode my bike down Union Ave to my friend's house, knew all the trees where you could find squirrels, all the best places to crack pine-nuts, took short-cuts through all the neighbours' gardens, roller-skated up and down Peak Drive, built dams in the gutters with my cousins in Camp Road.
A lovely story, but again, if more and more garden cities had been developed, a much larger portion of the country would be settled, so less arable land and less wild land for flora and fauna. Why do such good things always have to have a down side? (Not even to mention the worst of it, that this was all only for white people!) Jess looking pensive, which is how I feel tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment