Kate Povey

Communications Officer, The Gaia Foundation (www.gaiafoundation.org)

Today's Date: 3rd November 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

One that I've remembered recently is being shown around an orchard by the owner when I was about 8 years old. The orchard was near to where my grandfather lives and Mum used to help pick apples during harvest time. She was getting a bit old and was said to be quite a prickly person! But she seemed to take a liking to me and showed me around the whole orchard.

The grass was very lush and dewy as it was a damp misty morning, and the apples trees loomed up ahead, field after field. We walked over an old stone bridge and caught a glimpse of a kingfisher - the first one I'd seen. The flash of brilliant blue and orange has stayed in my mind ever since, and I suppose you could say it had an impact because I've just moved back to Devon with my partner and we are about to regenerate an old orchard there, in order to conserve old apple varieties and do small scale fruit juice and cider production.

I love the heritage of the English apple - the folklore surrounding it, the powers such 'sacred' trees can hold - I don't want all this knowledge lost.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

I grew up in the countryside and had lots of favourite places. One was an old oak tree, in the field next to our garden. My friends and I would climb in it and sit and have picnics in it. Down the middle was a huge hole (probably struck by lightning) and once we'd lost our flask of orange juice down it. It was too far down to be able to rescue it! The roots of the tree were also exposed and were just high enough to help me get on the pony that a friend of ours kept in the field and could ride bareback around the field before it decided to stop and have a roll!

Now? Now, I am still discovering our new farm. We have a woodland of about 5 acres but I haven't yet explored it properly. The most relaxing spot is at the back of the cow shed in the evening, when the sun is going down and it's nice and warm and protected from the wind.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

The animal I form most attachment with is probably my cat! I don't know if you were talking about pets and domestic animals or prefer what wild animal is my favourite but I think cats I have most experience of relating to. I like any native British wild animal but you can't get too emotional about them as you see so much road kill nowadays and farmers have problems with badgers, deer, rabbits and foxes - it can be quite a sensitive issue in the country!

My favourite wild animal would probably be the blue whale or killer whale - such magnificent creatures with strength and grace to take your breath away. I haven't seen one in person though.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Climate change - has been my greatest concern for over 10 years, now hopefully everyone else is waking up to it too. I think it will dominate the future too - together with how we live, carbon emission, use of energy, transport etc - it really does affect everyone's whole lives.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Don't waste anything! People buy so much rubbish that doesn't last. Think about every little thing you buy and dispose of - and try to cut it down drastically. It is not just a matter of governments taking the lead with regulations and legislation, EVERYBODY has to think and act.

Berol Robinson

Environmentalists/Ecologists For Nuclear Energy (EFN). I am a member of the Scientific and Medical Committee and president of the affiliated EFN-USA. Website www.ecolo.org

Today's Date: 02 November 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

[no answer given]

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

I was a city boy. When I was young, Boy Scouts was the thing to do, and I was an Eagle Scout. That was the most outdoor thing I ever did, and it didn't take.

Now? I'm still a city type.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

I think penguins are real cool ! I watched them one day in the penguin house at the Detroit Zoo, and I could watch them forever. The recent film "The March of the Emperors" was very moving.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

The world's population is much larger than the Earth can support. We live in an economy based on cheap oil - not only for electricity and transport but also for the very food we eat. We have new crops which feed us - the so-called Green Revolution has changed India from a famished land to a grain exporter, for example. But those new crops depend heavily upon fertilizer - derived from petroleum. It is said that "the soil is a tool for turning oil into food". And the oil is now running out - reserves of oil and natural gas are estimated to last a few decades, and we are discovering new deposits at a rate much less than current consumption - so we are living up our diminishing capital of energy.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Another source of energy is at hand: clean, safe, reliable, economical, and almost inexhaustible. It is nuclear fission; the technology is mature but subject to great improvements in the next 20 to 40 years. My fear is that the energy of nuclear fission may be set aside - that we may refuse to use it - for essentially trivial considerations: fear of radioactivity and radiation, the non-existent "problem" of radioactive waste management (dubbed "insoluble" by many), and fear of another accident like Chernobyl.

The problem of nuclear weapons proliferation remains, but that horse got out of the barn a long time ago. Every effort must be made in international politics to slow proliferation, but in the long run it is inevitable. Civilian nuclear power must not be sacrificed on the altar of weapons non-proliferation.