Last week, the Guardian reported that the U.K. Government had appointed a new “Special Representative for Nature”. The representative, Ruth Davis would, according to Environment Secretary Steve Reed, help to “to put climate and nature at the heart of our foreign policy”. Davis joins the newly re-established position of “Climate Envoy” that had been closed down under the previous Government, now occupied by Green-Blobber Rachel Kyte. Kyte’s appointment followed a controversial £4 million donation to the Labour Party from the hedge fund where Kyte has a position. Both appointments have won much praise from the green movement. But what does it mean to “represent nature”?
One might think that the body that ought to be at the “heart of our foreign policy” is the British public. But Environment Secretary Steve Reed believes differently, telling the Guardian that “We depend on nature in every aspect of our lives – it underpins our economy, health and society”. No doubt, human society has not yet wholly separated itself from natural processes, but the idea haunting this claim overstates both the degree of dependence and the vulnerability of such processes to the point of ideologically-driven madness.
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