DR Sheila George’s Agenda article (“We need to put land use words into
action”, The Herald, August 15) is a timely reminder of the “relationship
between climate, people and land in a warming world”. She correctly
identifies the need to balance competing demands ranging from renewable
energy to food production and woodland expansion leading to “climate action
through integrated, sustainable land use”.
While not disagreeing with anything she says, I suggest that there is one
further aspect of land use which is too readily ignored in our mechanistic,
materialistic urban culture.
Scotland’s wild lands are globally recognised as being of singular value by
those who understand the need to utilise all the resources available to
restore our ecosanity.
It is widely understood that being in the wild contributes to our physical,
emotional and mental wellbeing. We need to immerse ourselves in nature if
we are to understand the deep-seated nature of our relationship with the
Earth and its ecosystems: natural systems upon which we depend so much for
our survival. Your article today (“Transforming derelict sites can promote
growth and wellbeing”, The Herald, August 19) and the Agenda contribution
by the CEO of the Scottish Land Commission of the same day reinforce that
message from a different perspective.
I appreciate the urgency of the need to move from fossil fuels to
renewables but I also recognise the imperative to oppose the
industrialisation of our wild land by the entirely inappropriate placement
of onshore wind turbines which have no place there.
John Milne, Uddingston.
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