Every little helps!

The nomination of the Cabragh Wetlands Trust for an All-Ireland Pride of Place Conservation Award is very good news both for the Trust and for the local community. North Tipperary County Council has made the nomination for a cross-border award, in conjunction with Cooperation Ireland. Whether or not we get to shake hands with the President at the autumn Awards Ceremony is perhaps immaterial….though it would be nice to win! What matters is that there is growing recognition at a national level of the key role that community groups play in preserving their local habitats.

It would be easy to leave ecological protection to government, whether at county, national or European levels, and they have vital roles to play in setting ground rules and providing expertise and watchdogs….and money. But we have to believe that we as individuals are the ultimate guardians of our own habitats. If we do not care for the health of our own piece of earth, why should anyone else? It would be good to think that it is morally uplifting for us to be involved, and certainly the best possible example and bequest to our children.

The recent death of Edward Lorenz robbed us of the man recognized as the developer of “Chaos Theory”. He once ran a weather-prediction programme on his computer and decided to double-check the results, but to save time reduced his figures from six decimal places to three, an apparently insignificant adjustment of one part in a thousand. The results were dramatically different, and the implications were developed in his 1972 talk: “Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?”

Small deviations, small actions, can have massive and unpredictable results. Chaos Theory has had a profound impact on scientific and social theory, resulting in “one of the most dramatic changes in mankind’s view of nature since …..Newton”. It’s up there with Darwin and Einstein.

We have to believe that what we do as individuals and a community matters. Who knows what difference putting a coin in a bucket might make, or teaching your child about flowers, or buying binoculars instead of an ipod, or adding your perspective, expertise and enthusiasm to the work of a local group. If we all act locally, we can make a difference globally.