Published in the Evening Echo 21/05/2008
Watching “Wild China” on the BBC tonight was amazing. I never knew, for example, that wild Asian elephants still survive in the forests of central China, or that gibbons – which I thought confined to South East Asia – still roam the canopy in some of China’s forests. The sheer diversity of life unfolding on the screen was staggering – plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals.
But like so many of the world’s wild places, the amazing biodiversity of these Chinese forests is under threat. Much of China’s virgin rainforest has been felled to make way for rubber plantations – rubber that’s helping to fuel the inexorable rise of one of the world’s fastest growing economies. The economic imperative, as so often seems to happen, overrides the environmental one: short term gain taking precedence over long-term vision.
Much closer to home, we’d spent much of the day looking at biodiversity on a much smaller, but equally fascinating scale in one of Ireland’s wild places. Ireland’s National Biodiversity Week is running from 18 to 25 May this year, scheduled to coincide with the United Nations International Day for Biodiversity on 22 May.
“Biodiversity Week is Ireland’s contribution to a global celebration of biodiversity which aims to increase awareness of the importance of biodiversity and promote action to tackle the loss of many of our species,” said Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley, TD, as he unveiled the nationwide programme of events last week. “This is the second year that my Department has supported Biodiversity Week and already it has developed to the extent that we now have over 200 events taking place throughout the country.” And I have to say it’s a laudable effort in a country where we have plenty to redress when it comes to our environmental credentials.
Keen to get involved, and to expose the children to more of the wonders of Irish nature, we headed out to a Biodiversity Day event at the Irish Natural Forestry Foundation’s headquarters in Manch Estate, Balineen.
Dustin the turkey came unstuck in Serbia tonight, as Norway plucked the final place from under the thoroughly stuffed puppet’s nose.
Thank God!
I’ve always been a dustin fan, but I couldn’t believe Ireland actually put forward a puppet to represent the nation — even if it was the Eurovision. It was always a joke… and a bad one at that.
To be honest I couldn’t care less about the Eurovision — but even as a blow-in I do care deeply about Ireland’s international reputation. My daughters are Irish to the core, and while there’s a lot that can be improved upon, there’s also a lot to be proud of in this fine nation. Entering a stuffed turkey in the Eurovision isn’t one of them.
So it’s “Irelande, Nil Pointe”… and all the better for it.
Now maybe Dustin can focus his energy on something useful… like running for Taoiseach!