Radical British politics rooted in nature is spreading, but the establishment doesn’t like it | John Harris

SThere are some really interesting things going on in the UK, to do with nature, with the vast expanses of land that we think of as the countryside, and all of these things that exist in our collective consciousness. This change may have been quietly underway for 20 or 30 years. Now, it seems to have suddenly blurred from the realm of culture into our politics, with the obvious consequence that issues that have long been pushed to the margins are belatedly entering the national conversation, from land access and ownership to our appalling condition.

The general British attitude towards nature has long been in a similarly confused state. From the 1600s onward, endless enclosures drove people off the land and largely gave rise to the idea that the countryside was considered a no-go area. Britain’s rapid industrialization only accelerated the process. Despite occasional cultural and political tendencies contrary to the pastoral vision of the romantics of the 18th and 19th centuries, the mass invasion movements of the 1930s now make that long story of loss and alienation visible to most of us. sign.

Our understanding of seasonal changes seems to be all about superficial phenomena of heat and light rather than deeper cycles of flora and fauna; distinguishing different bird calls or spotting specific wildflowers requires a level of folk knowledge that now seems almost is magical. In 2018, the average British adult spent 90% of their time indoors. Two years ago, The Guardian reported that three-quarters of British children play outside for less than 60 minutes a day, making them less familiar with fresh air than the average prison inmate. In this case, we risk falling into the same dysfunctional relationship with the natural world that our direct ancestors did.

But maybe that’s changing. Walking outdoors has seen a sudden surge in popularity during the UK’s coronavirus lockdown. Around the same time, age-old and exclusionary clichés about green spaces were being undermined by inspirational groups like Muslim Hikers and Black Girls Hiking (last week, the latter’s Manchester founder, Ryan Fatinikun, received an MBE for services to nature and diversity). Shortly afterwards, right-to-roam campaigners received their biggest publicity campaign for years when wealthy landowner Alexander Darwall took legal action to end Dartmoor’s long-established wild camping rights , a fight begins that looks set to reach the Supreme Court. In very different ways, these stories focus on the same key ideas: the rejection of any idea of ​​natural places and spaces being unbounded, and the joyous democracy of coming together to experience something more nourishing than concrete and asphalt.

They also relate to a growing interest in that fascinating, magical aspect of life that we can only discover when we connect with nature and the traces of older ways of life that litter our landscapes. My favorite example of the latter trend is the Weird Walk, a project spawned by three friends who started out walking an ancient footpath in southern England wearing incorrect shoes. A book, a regular fanzine and the occasional podcast. Their interests include stone circles, enduring local rituals and lost places, and how walking can enhance a visceral understanding of the chaotic state of our planet. A call to heart to embrace the natural world and its rhythms.

Our renewed interest in nature is linked to recent British history and the wave of anti-road protests that took place in the 1990s. These battles against official acts of vandalism on tarmac, such as the Newbury Bypass and the M3 extension at Twyford Down near Winchester, blend radical and creative action with a sense of history and mysticism: for To their participants and many observers, they represented an inspiring rejection of money-driven authoritarianism (an infamous legislative document of the time was titled “Paths to Prosperity”) that many considered too powerful , unable to resist. More than thirty years later, some of that energy is still moving around: over the past decade or so I’ve watched the campaign against a dual carriageway through the Stonehenge world heritage site, the madness of fracking and the destruction of nature Got it.

Moreover, this radicalism, which combines a deep affinity for the landscape with a hard-line political edge, is more evident than ever. There is an obvious symbiotic relationship between these two things: the more severe the environmental damage, the more precious nature becomes and the louder the voice becomes. That’s the big story of how private water companies’ treatment of rivers has become such a hot political issue lately. As a result of this outrage and the endless impacts of our warming climate, the idea of ​​granting nature a range of legal rights is entering the political debate: last year in Lewes, East Sussex, for example, the district council passed a motion to open the way for Through the World Declaration of the Rights of Rivers, developed through international collaboration in 2017, the Ouse was granted the right to flow, be free from pollution and maintain native biodiversity.

Unsurprisingly, the political establishment simply doesn’t like this stuff: earlier this year, Britain’s delegate to the United Nations Environment Assembly insisted that rejecting the rights of nature was a fundamental British principle and one from which we cannot depart. To many, this sounds like someone stubbornly playing their part in a very familiar story, where today’s outlandish and unthinkable ideas often become tomorrow’s inevitability.

A new politics is brewing here. It is both radical and deeply rooted in our history and has produced an established text. Next week, Wild Service is published, co-edited by Nick Hayes, who wrote the 2020 travelogue The Trespassing Book, which exposed the absurdity of land ownership. This new book brings together writers and activists who are committed to creating a new culture that returns nature to the center of society. Its title not only reflects the concept of serving the planet by protecting it, but also the idea that in doing so we are honoring something truly sacred. A new generation of protesters, walkers, campers, foragers and wild swimmers are at the heart of it all. One contributor said, We need people to be intertwined with the land like thorns in the bush. In other words, nature is a part of us all, and we can only protect it from disaster by joyfully and defiantly engaging with it.