Gardens NOT car parks: Garden for a Living London

Showing posts with label Garden for a Living London. Show all posts

Tuesday, 1 September 2009

1/9/09: London Wildlife Trust - Garden for a Living London campaign

Garden for a Living London

http://www.wildlondon.org.uk/gardening/Home/tabid/384/Default.aspx

The LWT says: 'Let's transform London's three million gardens into a network of mini nature reserves! Pledge to become a wildlife and climate friendly gardener and get your free 'how to' guides.'

I.e., don't do this .......

CONSERVATION STARTS AT HOME. Spot the Sparrow, Bee, Butterfly etc. habitat here. Car parks = sterility = homelessness = death = a further decline in numbers.

GARDENS vz CAR PARKS - it's time to stop driving the greenery out of our urban areas

- There are other options! Total paving is just plain lazy and unnecessary. Solid and hard-to-reverse surfacing is actually more expensive. It is perfectly possible to combine planting with car parking.
- Increased run-off = more flooding.
- Cities are already 'heat islands'. Paved surfaces increase localised heating by acting like a storage heater, heating up and then re-radiating that heat. A bad idea with the climate warming.
- Paved over gardens have less resources for wildlife. Completely paved over gardens have near-zero wildlife value.
Why are there way fewer Sparrows, Bees and Butterflies ?
- What's more attractive for you and passers-by to look at? Plants or a sterile swathe of paving?
- Private car use needs to decrease to cut CO2 emissions. Oil production is predicted to go into decline soon. There's often plenty of public transport in cities and suburbia.
- Even with alternative car fuels, it's also a land use issue. The country cannot feed itself. Allotment waiting lists are sky high. Is it sensible to turn fertile ground into car parking?
- If people want to live in a car park, there are plenty of scrappy ones around they could buy instead! Anyone not wanting the 'bother' of a garden could join a garden-share scheme to let someone else use it instead, or even swap houses with someone who does.
- Based on current trends we are still looking at an ever-increasing and very long legacy of these negative effects, since there's no sign of people reversing the process, and most of these trashed gardens are likely to stay that way for years to come.

Gardens NOT car parks

Tuesday, 1 September 2009

1/9/09: London Wildlife Trust - Garden for a Living London campaign

GARDENS vz CAR PARKS - it's time to stop driving the greenery out of our urban areas

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