Eco-life that’s hidden away in plain sight

OUR civilisation is built, it is said, on the plough. This innovation gave us the ability to plant more crops and grow more food.

But ploughing, we are learning, also destroys the vital soil eco-life and invisible microbial systems on which plant life depends. Ploughing can result in terrible loss of topsoil and nutrients. It’s not a sustainable way to provide food. This could turn out to be a real ecological crisis coming hard down the road.

Fortunately we have emerging solutions, like “no-till farming” where the soil is left untilled so that the ecosystems are not brutally destroyed. We need a new greener perspective which recognises what is going on all around us in the great engine of nature. We don’t see viruses because they are so small, and we don’t see what’s going on in the soil because that too is hidden away in plain sight. This pandemic has vividly illustrated for us all just how tiny aspects of life impact on us. And how we interact, and the world which we humans create, can then create terrible feedback consequences.

The coronavirus could never have spread around the world so quickly without the interconnection of economies and peoples.

Aeroplanes provided the perfect means for viruses to move rapidly from continent to continent. That is what happened. Sad to say, there might be other future nasties lying in store. Our best bet is for us all to understand the basic science and respect the web of life and nature, and be prepared.

Our outlook, our world is going to be utterly changed by this pandemic. I hope we all come out of it – whenever that is – with a greater respect for the powers of nature, and a greater understanding and appreciation of our great NHS and of the science and scientists which developed the vaccines.

Chris Watson

Bristol