Final Post From London

Bags are mostly packed and we're ready for the long journey home to New Zealand, aside from Lena of course. It's been an amazing 5 months. One of our Thai friends, risakorn, reassured me back in February when I was looking a bit worried ... "Don't worry Gavin, if you do good things, good things will happen for you". He was right. So many good things have happened.

Lena is currently on her way home from her job here in London. Once she is here we're going out to the local pub for our final meal together as a family until Lena returns to NZ at the end of October. We're all looking forward to being home. There are plenty of challenges ahead for all of us, but also many possibilities and opportunities. I've had two meetings this week with film people. The first helped me clarify what I don't want to do, which is to give my ideas and contacts away and simply be used as a consultant. The second strongly affirmed what I am doing out of myself and to keep working in that way. It was very heartening to have this said to me today. Thank you to Charlotte for being so affirmative and supportive.

It seems ironic that we'll be in mid-air when the Live Earth concert is happening tomorrow. I contacted them via their website from Europe and offered to help, I was even willing to delay my flight home. We have gathered such powerful images and voices and I was willing to share some of these. Unfortunately I've heard nothing. These things develop their own lives and we keep on doing good things in our own lives.

Out travels are almost over, but keep watching. I'll be posting updates once we're home. I don't know who has followed this site other than family and friends. I hope it has drawn in a few other people. If that is the case then please let me know who you are and share your thoughts. You can post comments here, or go to www.earthlimited.org for a contact email address.

Lugano to London slideshow

2 July 2007 England

For most of our journey we've been experiencing warm, often very hot, weather. Not so since we came to England! Temperatures have been in the late teens to low 20s. There was flooding last week, including in Doncaster, South Yorkshire where Karen's Aunt and Cousins live. On the BBC news website (www.bbc.com) someone suggested that there was a need for reafforestation in many parts of England, in hills that were deforested at least 500 years ago. A big source of the problem, someone else said to the media, is that there have been too many housing developments in flood plains since World War 2. Along with these developments have been storm-water drainage systems and other infrastructural developments (such as motorways) that have tended to be contrary to, rather than in harmony with, natural water flows. Climate change is a factor say the experts. In the past floods often occurred after cold winters, with snow melt. Not so now, they are more a result of unseasonal rainfall events such as has been experienced here over the last week. What is the real source of the problem, what are the right solutions? All of the above and more. This is the reality of the early 21st century, the legacy of centuries, perhaps thousands of years, of human activity that has often been contrary to nature and natural processes.

What lessons are there to learn from the past? Visiting Stonehenge yesterday was cause for some reflection on this question ... a place that first had a human presence around 5000 years ago in an environment that was originally forested. But from listening to the audio commentary as I walked around it is clear that we have many more questions than answers. There is an awful lot that we are very ignorant of, but we're not very good at acknowledging our ignorance in all of the things we do in our modern world. We drove down the road to Old Sarum, the subject of what I consider to be a very powerful painting by Constable. A painting that to me is a reflection, actually a question, on the right relationship between human and nature. It was a Constable-like day with many clouds in the sky, wild and windy, a bit of sun trying to break through.



Reflections from Stonehenge.

A 'Constable' scene ... looking towards Salisbury from Old Sarum.

A view towards Old Sarum, just another hill from a distance, but a hill with 5000 years of human history. Fields and sky dominate now.

I'm meeting a film producer tomorrow. The first response I had over the phone was that my filming won't be good enough to work with. I was told that if I really have a story worth telling then maybe I could use what I've filmed to sell the idea, and then a film crew could be sent out. I wasn't demoralised by this. We're still going to meet. I can't say if the filming Lena and I have done is good enough or not. I do know I have a very good story amongst everything we've filmed. I know that I've captured images and moments that can't be reproduced in what would be a much more contrived manner. I also know that I've met and interviewed people who probably can't be re-interviewed and will never talk as freely and as spontaneously as I've managed to get them to talk at times. So we'll see what happens. It is very positive that someone is willing to meet with me. It's a beginning of another phase that I expect to be very challenging. Thanks to my Mum's estate, I found the resources to buy professional film gear and head off on a journey. I found support from some amazing people along the way, firstly from our amazing friends in Thailand, in particular Khun Tuenjai, and then from others in different places. I don't have the resources to do any more. It's time to get back to New Zealand and start earning some money again. But so many people have given so much and shown belief in me and what I'm doing. I'll keep on working as well as I can to make something out of all of this.

From London

Tuesday, 26 June
We arrived in London on Saturday (23 June), our journey almost over. There was a major scare at the airport in Paris. After doing an automatic check-in and passing through passport control we were in the queue to check in our bags. It was then that I discovered that the black bag with all 30+ hours of film from the last 4 ½ months was missing. No bag, film gone. I was told afterwards that I went white with shock. Through a combination of real exhaustion and carelessness the bag had been left behind in our lease car when we dropped it off and transferred to a shuttle. Fortunately we had time to spare and I had kept the paper with the phone number for the lease car company (only because it had a map on it and I'm a hoarder of maps!). They found the bag and delivered it to me at the arrivals area. This temporary loss had me questioning, for a short time, what I had achieved from this journey. Was it nothing without the film? I don't believe so. In fact I have gained so much more in terms of a deepened understanding of the real issues people are already experiencing and some of the very positive things that are being done. I capped off the day by taking Emma to see Crowded House and Peter Gabriel in Hyde Park (reviews here and here. Cheers Michael). It was a great way to finish a nearly disastrous day.

Yesterday I visited the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), www.defra.govt.uk, and gave a presentation covering my New Zealand adaptation work, lessons from this and reflections from the last 4 ½ months. It was well received, with plenty of questions and some discussion afterwards. One of the staff talked about the current international debate that is happening in terms of who pays who for adaptation and how you make the distinction between adaptation to climate change and adaptation to the inherent variability of climate. This debate is paralysing international actions. I kept reinforcing my very clear view that the only way forward is to be guided by what is happening on the ground. Too many people now are spending too much time in meetings, workshops and seminars talking and debating what ought to be done to address the effects of climate change. Meanwhile, people on the ground are acting. The smartest farmers are, in my view, always ahead of everyone and I certainly believe we've encountered some very smart people of the land on our journey. We do need local, national and international policy but it will only be truly effective if shaped in a way that is relevant to people's lives and aimed at empowering local people to own and implement local solutions. The problem is, to put it in the simple words of Michun Gurung, that we have too many talkers and not enough doers.

Where to from here? We are presently based in London until 7 July, then fly back to New Zealand. I have a couple of meetings lined up before we leave, including a return visit to DEFRA to talk in more depth to some staff there. I'm still searching for the right connections that will help me realise the goal of a documentary film. A book might also be a good idea. Seeking funds to support grassroots exchanges and sharing of information is something I will continue working on.

Keep watching this space. It has been very difficult for me to maintain regular posts via Michael (the blog site manager) since we arrived in Italy on 14 May. Access to the internet has been difficult in many places and there have been many demands on my time. From now on things will be much easier. So I will keep adding useful information for those who are interested.

Sunday, 18 June
Yesterday I met Jean-Pierre Caumont at the Montcuq market and bought some of his wine. This morning I drove to his farm to film an interview with him, most likely my only farmer interview in France and the last on this journey. Jean-Pierre comes from a farming family in the village of Escayrac. He went to University but was drawn back to the land and now farms farms 60 ha of cropping land and 3.5 ha of wine grapes with his wife, Claire. They also own about 40 ha of forest land for biodiversity and aesthetic benefits. Jean-Pierre has aways felt an affinity with nature, but farmed conventionally for many years. Increasingly he saw the effects of intensive use of chemicals and also began experiencing more chaotic weather patterns. So he decided to move towards an organic production system. The term 'organic' or 'biologique' in French, is one that he and his wife, Claire, have been cautious in using. They are people who are simply passionate about the land and the environment and don't really like to be labelled in a particular way. Over the last 20 years Jean-Pierre has noticed more extreme weather events, more unpredictability with rainfall, and higher temperatures. Hotter summers are being reflected in increased alcohol content of wines in the region. He perceives greater challenges in the future with cropping than with the wine grapes. The deep-rooting of the vines enables them to withstand drought, for example. His experience is that with organic soil management, biodiversity protection and diversity of production they have a greater capacity to buffer against climatic extremes. Both Jean-Pierre and Claire are strongly committed to protecting local biodiversity, demonstrated by the fact that they recently bought a neighbouring piece of woodland to prevent another would-be buyer from clear-felling it.

If you live somewhere in Europe and want to support a couple of very dedicated people by purchasing their wine you will be able to find out about them over the web in the future. The name of their farm is Le Pech d'Auzonne. You can get mail order wine by writing to them:

Claire and Jean-Pierre Caumont, Escayrac, 46800 Montcuq, France.

Jean-Pierre and Claire Caumont are deeply committed to protecting and enhancing their local environment for the future.

The man and the vine. Jean-Pierre can honestly say that he knows every vine in his 3.5 ha vineyard.

Vines with woodland in the background, purchased by Jean-Pierre to protect biodiversity around their farm.