Issue 158 | December 2024

Hello dear readers, and a very warm welcome to the new edition of the Voice for Arran. It is great to be back, although I am a little disoriented after the three months break since the last issue, and I have momentarily been wondering if it really is December, and not in fact October!

This disorientation however is also related to the slight feeling of ‘Groundhog Day’ I have been experiencing at times in recent weeks – the feeling that ‘events that have happened before happen again, in what seems to be exactly the same way.' That the Arran Outdoor Education Centre is at risk of closure again, and so soon after the last time it was threatened, is a depressing case in point. But in relation to many things going on in the world just now, I have been wondering - why is it that the same things seem to repeatedly occur with no apparent change or alteration?

Coming across Alison Prince’s piece, ‘The Year 2000’, in The Arran Naturalist added another layer of contemplation. Writing in 1990, in the light of the approaching millennium, Prince looks at the nature of our planet as a living entity and the “mystery in the whole set up" being humankind. We could not survive without the earth, yet at the same time it seems we are doing all we can to destroy it – our energy consumption is increasing, we produce more things to buy, still “we are devoted to the idea of a constant improving standard of living”. She asks, “In 10 years time, how will this parasitic relationship have developed – or deteriorated?”

Her piece could well have been written today, with similar warnings coming from the UN, from scientists, environmental organisations and elsewhere. Amidst the Cop29 Conference and Global Plastics Treaty taking place last month, has come the news that 2024 is on track to be the warmest year on record, already hitting 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and without cuts to emissions, temperatures are heading towards a rise of 3.1°C. As Prince wrote over 30 years, “A race against time is going on.”

Sally Campbell’s report on the Cop29 that has just concluded in Azerbaijan provides a small chink of light, via the actions of the UK government and the new targets Sir Keir Starmer has committed to. Acting on recommendations from the Climate Change Committee, “He announced that the UK’s 2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) target will be to reduce emissions by at least 81% compared to 1990 levels by 2035.” While we will have to wait and see if these policies are backed up with concrete action, they at least reflect a possibility of change in what seems to be an otherwise overwhelming trajectory towards rising global temperatures driven by oil and gas interests.

Prince writes, “In the coming decade, we as a species will have to accept the fact that we cannot do as we like, but only as the earth permits us." While for many this statement may sound like a restriction on their individual liberty, in the face of relentless environmental disregard it feels to me instead to be about making planet positive choices, and about acting on our human capacity - perhaps this is the "mystery" - to be able to do things differently in the space that each new moment brings.

I have yet to find myself in the Christmas spirit, but with some of the lovely things happening in the coming weeks, including a Corrie Christmas Film Club, Eco Savvy's Christmas Fair and the Lamlash Drama Club’s annual panto, there is still time! We hope you enjoy the issue and from all of us at the Voice we wish you a happy and peaceful festive time... Elsa