A SHEFFIELD LESSON

 

“IF ANYONE PLANTS AT LEAST ONE TREE, THEN HE WILL BE ABLE TO STAY IN THE HEAVEN OF INDRA FOR THIRTY THOUSAND YEARS”....from the Hindu text MATSYA PURANA wrote 1600 years ago. 

A few years ago I followed, a long running battle to save the trees in Sheffield England's greenest city. Which saw dozens of people arrested including Green Party Councillors and University academics. When contractors tried to cut down, 23 trees planted a century ago as a memorial to those who died in the Great war and replace them  with year old whips. The trouble started in 2012, when Sheffield's labour controlled council signed a two billion road maintenance contract with a private company AMEY. The contract included the maintenance of the city's 36,000 roadside trees. In two years before AMEY were given the contract 457 trees were felled in Sheffield over the next four years 4,168 were felled. Only 1,120 were dead or diseased, the rest were said to be causing an obstruction or damage to the pavement or were deemed to be in poor condition. The Valiant efforts to save their trees brought the community of Sheffield together and helped open up a debate about how in city centres trees are assets for the local community's .What Sheffield council and AMEY did made no moral or economic sense when you consider the huge value of trees to the economy health and environment. In a typical hot day in July and August when the sun rays heat the concrete, asphalt and glass temperatures in city centres can be 10 degrees higher then the country. Most man made surfaces retain the heat and will keep radiating the heat back into the atmosphere until the evening. Trees help cool the cities. Temperature under the shade of a mature tree will be 10 degrees Fahrenheit cooler because wind and air cools as it moves through the trees.

Trees on a street help moderate the environment in which we live by improving air quality conserving water and providing refugee to wildlife. The leaves on trees in cities filter the air we breathe by removing dust and other particles they absorb carbon dioxide from the air.

Our island is surrounded by darkness of our enemies , the darkness is a sign Odin has departed from the English and left us to prove to him our devotion and love. To demonstrate our courage. We can do this by defending nature planting trees campaigning on  environmental issues that effect local community's.  What was done in Sheffield must be an example of how we can campaign in community's across the UK to build our faith. By defending nature we are defending the gods.