In the Spring, Heather and I noticed a yellow-spotted salamander on the edge of our garden pond. Today, the pond is almost dry, full of weeds and bulrushes. The pond depends on the runoff from South Mountain.
The salamander is at risk, as the provincial government supports the use of sprays to manage the clear-cuts. Who will speak for the salamander?
Meanwhile, as we approach a municipal election, candidates focus on fiscal accountability. If we destroy our landscape and the species that call it home, then arguing about the costs of different projects is relatively insignificant.
This Thursday, there is a protest against spraying on North Mountain,
https://www.facebook.com/ExtinctionRebellionNovaScotia/posts/1114729368923750 
My brother, Peter sent me a BBC4 interview with Robert MacFarlane. MacFarlane is well known for his books on the ‘language of place’.
In the podcast, he makes a couple of interesting points.
MacFarlane quotes the poet, W.H.Auden:
“Culture is no better than its woods”
He also speaks to the need to collaborate with artists and musicians, especially when campaigning to save the trees and the landscape.
Acknowledgements
Peter Maher for his support from France. Edward and Heather for their support in Nova Scotia. Nina Newington for her campaigning.
References
BBC4 Front Row. Interview with Robert MacFarlane by Kristy Lang.
George Orwell. Some Thoughts on the Common Toad. Penguin Great Ideas. #99.
The title of this blog is a homage to George Orwell (1903-1950). His thoughts on the Common Toad was first published in 1946. He concludes the essay.
“The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it”. p.6.
Post-postscript
From one of my boxes of books, I noticed, peaking out, David Knight and Alun Joseph (Ed) 1999. Restructuring Societies: Insights from the Social Sciences. It contains an essay by Bob Rae. ‘Two men against Revolution. Edmund Burke and George Orwell’. That is now over twenty years ago!
Ernest Blair Experiment 