Trees and Hvar's Youngest Eco-Warrior

Published in Nature Watch

Trees are among Hvar's major assets. They need nurturing and protecting. Taliah Bradbury (7) is preparing to take on the task.

Conifers by the sea in Vitarnja Conifers by the sea in Vitarnja Vivian Grisogono

The abundant conifers which spread over the island create Hvar's year-round greenness. The autumn-winter cycle of leaves turning red and falling as autumn turns into winter exists mainly in the vineyards. The evergreen trees add to Hvar's image as a place of eternal sunshine, if not perpetual summer.

Locals tend to take the trees for granted. Many see them only as a source of fruits, firewood and Christmas trees. If they don't serve these purposes, they may be good for providing shade. If none of these applies, trees are often seen as a nuisance, blocking the view or creating a mess if they drop fruit, nuts or leaves on the ground. Once a tree is deemed a nuisance, it is usually mercilessly removed by chainsaw or even poison. Apart from human intervention, many of Hvar's trees have been lost to forest fires over the years, leaving swathes of bare land.

Seven-year-old Taliah Bradbury is in her first year at school, and already aware of the more wide-reaching importance of trees. Her interest was stimulated by learning about the rainforests of the Amazon, and the amount of damage being done by deforestation. She knows that the loss of the rainforest threatens the world's oxygen supply, so it's a danger to our very lives. She is determined to do something about it, even though she knows the bad people who are responsible for cutting down the Amazon's trees might try to harm her for her efforts. She's preparing to defend herself by practising judo. Taliah's older sister Hannah is also a young eco-warrior and judoka. Her particular interest is in animals, from dogs to elephants.

 Taliah's eco-actions have already begun at home. She is aware of the importance of keeping the environment clean, and tries to set an example to her classmates, especially those who have not yet learned the practical side of protecting the environment for the good of everyone.

Litter is a blight. Many people ignore it as if it didn't exist, but not young Taliah. She knows that the proper place for rubbish is in the bin.

As a Christmas present in 2015, Taliah received a most welcome gift - a lime tree of her own to plant, cherish, enjoy and protect!

 

An even greater surprise treat was a present related to the Amazon rainforest: five trees have been planted in her name in Ecuador, and she received a bar of chocolate from an indigenous tribe of coca-growers in the Peruvian Amazon, whose traditional way of life in their forest home is being preserved through their trade in chocolate.

Taliah's family made sure their Christmas celebrations followed sound environmental principles. Taliah was delighted to report to Eco Hvar that they had planted a proper tree with roots in a big pot, so that it would thrive year after year, and not just be thrown away after a few days like most people's Christmas trees.

Saturday January 16th 2016 saw the first eco-action of reforesting the slopes above the village of Svirce with Dalmatian black pines (crni borovi) which are considered to be a threatened species, and so are protected. A small band of about 20 people, including Taliah's dad Paul - following in his daughter's footsteps - set to work digging holes in the steep stony hillside. The project, organized by Irena Doric, founder of the local charity Odrzivi Otok, gave all the workers a chance to marvel at the resilience of Hvar's earlier generations who created and tilled their fields among these unforgiving rocks.

Taliah intends to be on hand to protect the trees her dad helped to plant as soon as she is big enough. Her enthusiasm is infectious, and Eco Hvar has every hope that many of Taliah's friends will join her as Hvar's budding eco-warriors.

© Vivian Grisogono 2016  

You are here: Home Nature Watch Trees and Hvar's Youngest Eco-Warrior

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Six Portuguese young people claim inadequate policies to tackle global heating breach their human rights

    A key plank of the UK government’s defence against the biggest climate legal action in the world next week has fallen away as a result of the U-turn by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, on green policies.

    The UK is one of 32 countries being taken to the European court of human rights on Wednesday by a group of Portuguese young people. They will argue in the grand chamber of the Strasbourg court that the nations’ policies to tackle global heating are inadequate and in breach of their human rights obligations.

    Continue reading...

  • The prime minister’s attempts to turn the climate emergency into a US-style wedge issue have dismayed veteran MPs who champion green policies

    Rishi Sunak’s decision to drive a “green wedge” between the Conservatives and Labour will take the UK into dangerous new political territory and “the worst kind of culture wars”, not seen for more than 30 years, senior Tory figures and political observers have warned.

    Reversals and delays to net zero policy announced last week will be just the start of a general election campaign in which the UK’s longstanding cross-party political consensus on climate will be increasingly at stake. Emails sent to journalists from the Conservative campaign headquarters revealed lines of attack on targets including the independent Climate Change Committee and Labour’s proposed £28bn investment in a low-carbon economy.

    Continue reading...

  • Right this way, sir

    Continue reading...

  • Group tasked with overseeing initiative to insulate homes and upgrade boilers was only set up in March

    The government’s energy efficiency taskforce, charged with reducing the UK’s energy use by 15% by 2030, has been scrapped months after it was established.

    The group, which was overseeing an initiative to insulate homes and upgrade boilers, was announced by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, in his autumn statement last year as part of plans to boost investment in energy efficiency.

    Continue reading...

  • The tycoon, who is stepping down from News Corp and Fox, has used his outlets to promote denial and delay action, experts say

    Scientists have described the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch as a “climate villain” who has used his television and newspaper empire to promote climate science denial and delay action.

    Murdoch’s outlets, including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and The Australian, have long been known to promote doubts about the cause and consequences of the climate crisis. Scientists said this had caused lasting damage.

    Continue reading...

  • Morecambe Bay, Lancashire:After skimming stones into the sea, we saw a rock pipit – but it was so well camouflaged we nearly missed it

    One bright September morning, my family and I headed down to the tranquil coast of Morecambe for a vintage festival. As we arrived, the salubrious autumn breeze washed over us, and the squawking seagulls welcomed us with greedy eyes. The cloudless sky was filled with birds, pirouetting above the waves. We threw smooth, small pebbles into the jaws of the sea as the waves crashed against the rocks, leaving a trail of wet sticky sand.

    As we crossed the promenade, something caught my attention. Camouflaged against a seaweed-splattered rock was a petite bird – it appeared to be a rock pipit. This distinctive, dainty creature, with legs gripped on to a boulder, had a mixture of taupe feathers, giving it a soft and sleek look. As I continued along the promenade, I wondered how many other “invisible” birds were around the coast, that I hadn’t acknowledged because of their ability to blend in with nature.

    Continue reading...

  • The teenage campaigner took politicians to task about the environment – but their apathy contributed to a devastating decline in his mental health. He talks about his recovery and the radical ideas we need to save the Earth

    Precisely how he got there, and why, he does not remember, but Charlie Hertzog Young knows that in the autumn of 2019, aged 27 and at the height of his despair, he jumped from a high building in London. He landed on concrete, split open his pelvis like a book and demolished his legs. He was bleeding out – dying – and yet managed to have a pleasant conversation with a resident of the neighbouring building who thought he was a burglar. He survived, thanks to the speedy arrival of a paramedic with specialist trauma skills. Even so, he spent a month in a coma and six months in hospital. Eventually, he was discharged with legs so damaged that they both had to be amputated. He lost his job as a researcher and his rented flat.

    The years leading to this moment are a searing story of personal and planetary pain. Aged 12, Hertzog Young worried about global heating and became a climate activist. He won a national award for founding a green council in his school. Gradually, he became a British Greta Thunberg, without the international fame or internet trolls. As the voice of youth, he was invited to global summits, including the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos and, later that year, the UN climate summit in Copenhagen. “There are young people in communities all across the world who are trying to facilitate change,” he told the elders of Davos. “We’d like you to help us to help you.” Then, at just 17, he accosted the likes of Bill Gates and Barack Obama in corridors between events and harangued them about the urgency of taking action to stop global heating.

    Continue reading...

  • The backlash faced by Sadiq Khan in response to novel and brave measures is absurd, says Nancy Collins

    Your interview with Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, for whom I act as a solicitor in claims arising from her daughter’s death, highlights the clear need for an urgent and precise response to address the risks to health from exposure to air pollution (How anti-Ulez campaigners misused air pollution finding in Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah death, 16 September).

    The politicisation of London’s ultra-low emission zone makes a mockery of the strengthening scientific consensus that poor air quality causes severe health conditions. History will judge harshly the failure to heed these warnings.

    Continue reading...

  • UK climate watchdog said policy change would make it more difficult to meet legal commitments

    Rishi Sunak is likely to face a series of legal challenges aimed at thwarting his plans to U-turn on net zero policies amid further international condemnation of the proposals.

    Though the prime minister sought to shrug off criticism on Thursday, the UK’s independent climate watchdog joined the voices of concern, saying it was disappointed with changes that would make it more difficult for Britain to meet its legal commitments.

    Continue reading...

  • More than 4,500 people died due to hot temperatures, ONS data reveals, as rate increases over recent years

    More than 4,500 people died in England in 2022 due to high temperatures, the largest figure on record, with the number of heat-related deaths increasing over recent years.

    Between 1988 and 2022, almost 52,000 deaths associated with the hottest days were recorded in England, with a third of them occurring since 2016, data from the Office for National Statistics shows. During the same 35-year period analysed, more than 2,000 people died in Wales due to the warm temperatures.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds