With another year coming to a close, thoughts will undoubtably turn to the coming new year that is looming ever closer. 2021 hasn't exactly been the best of years, and sadly it would seem that Covid is going to continue to cause us significant problems well into the new year. Add to that of the issues associated with shortages of goods and all of the shenanigans going on in various governments worldwide; you'd be excused if you found your attention taken away from problems in the natural world. But that is (for a short time) what COP26 did for us. It focused our attention on the continuing problems happening in the natural world, problems that could well overshadow what is happening to us all today.

COP26 ended, as most of us thought it would, with many pledges and very little action. Many Governments all argued for the right to be excused, as you would a child that wanted to leave the room, from their obligations to the global community. While fossil fuel companies won the opportunity to continue with their activities, other countries could see their homes vanishing below the waves of an increasingly rising sea level. Just this week, we have been told that The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica could well shatter over the next few years, due in no small part to rising temperatures. According to The Washington Post, this body of ice is already responsible for 4% of global annual sea level increases.

With all this gloom and doom, it is sometimes hard to see what we as individuals can do.  It is easy to feel that what you do in your own garden can have little impact on things globally. But as has been said many times before, if we all do a little, the collective outcome can be significant. After all, there are a lot of gardens in the UK. So with that in mind, what are you going to do for nature in 2022? Plant a wildlife garden, dig a pond, put up more feeders or nest boxes, set up bug hotels, or just stop mowing the lawn quite so much? We can all do something, and the great thing is we can see the differences these actions make very quickly.

What often goes unnoticed is that nature, and birds, in particular, are a constant in all our lives. With all of the problems we are all having to deal with, it is easy for us to forget that nature continues all around us; we often fail to notice it. Sadly we can't continue to forget about it while more important things happen. The natural world IS the ‘more important thing’ that is happening! While we overlook nature, species are becoming extinct. Many of those that were commonplace are now far from it. So in 2022, let's all try to do something, or do more of what we are already doing, to help Mother Nature. The rewards can be immense, both for us as individuals and for our global family.

© Phil Pickin