Thank you for this beautiful piece of writing. And thank you for drawing attention to the National Emergency Briefing.
Even though we live far apart, here in Hungary we have been doing something very similar. For example, the nature filmmaker Balázs Szendőfi created films that not only showed the beauty of nature, but also began revealing its brutal destruction. The previous government would not allow these films to be broadcast — they were effectively banned from television channels.
So instead, he traveled from village to village and from town to town, screening them for small groups of people and speaking with them afterward.
As for me, I began leading what we called “forest layings.” I would take people into forest areas devastated by clear-cutting, and there we would lie down on the ground like fallen trees. Later, we would walk through beautiful living forests as well. It became a kind of collective grieving process.
And something remarkable happened: people slowly began waking up from the paralysis of climate shock. They realized they were not helpless puppets.
There have been many, many actions like this over the past few years. And in the most recent election this April, we succeeded in removing a government that had been destroying nature for more than twenty years. And it was not a small defeat — it was a massive one.
The very first action of the new Minister for Nature Protection was to announce an immediate logging moratorium for protected forests.
I say all this because what you are doing there truly matters — and it will have an impact. Yes, together we are moving toward the light.
I wish you strength and perseverance.
And I absolutely adore your beautiful paper flowers.
Tamás, thank you so much for sharing this. The change of government in your country has felt like a huge moment (movement?) of hope and I did not know that the first action of the new Minister for Nature was a logging moratorium, this is fantastic news. If only the People's Emergency Briefing here in the UK can start to wake people up. Our country is so nature depleted, and it is heart breaking, and yet, there is so much we could do. The seaside town I live in has been torn apart in a fight over nature in recent years - the most incomprehensible and depressing thing to watch - a fight over a rewilded beach. Over six years, the beach was left untouched and changed dramatically from a flat expanse of mud to a vibrant green oasis full of plants (from 0 to over 200 species!), birds and insects. It was given protected status, but the anti-nature group have just had a win and half the vegetation has been removed again. It's hard not to despair in the face of this hard headed determination to "neaten" the environment. But hope has to prevail and your stories help so much!
Dear Ling,
Thank you for this beautiful piece of writing. And thank you for drawing attention to the National Emergency Briefing.
Even though we live far apart, here in Hungary we have been doing something very similar. For example, the nature filmmaker Balázs Szendőfi created films that not only showed the beauty of nature, but also began revealing its brutal destruction. The previous government would not allow these films to be broadcast — they were effectively banned from television channels.
So instead, he traveled from village to village and from town to town, screening them for small groups of people and speaking with them afterward.
As for me, I began leading what we called “forest layings.” I would take people into forest areas devastated by clear-cutting, and there we would lie down on the ground like fallen trees. Later, we would walk through beautiful living forests as well. It became a kind of collective grieving process.
And something remarkable happened: people slowly began waking up from the paralysis of climate shock. They realized they were not helpless puppets.
There have been many, many actions like this over the past few years. And in the most recent election this April, we succeeded in removing a government that had been destroying nature for more than twenty years. And it was not a small defeat — it was a massive one.
The very first action of the new Minister for Nature Protection was to announce an immediate logging moratorium for protected forests.
I say all this because what you are doing there truly matters — and it will have an impact. Yes, together we are moving toward the light.
I wish you strength and perseverance.
And I absolutely adore your beautiful paper flowers.
Tamás, thank you so much for sharing this. The change of government in your country has felt like a huge moment (movement?) of hope and I did not know that the first action of the new Minister for Nature was a logging moratorium, this is fantastic news. If only the People's Emergency Briefing here in the UK can start to wake people up. Our country is so nature depleted, and it is heart breaking, and yet, there is so much we could do. The seaside town I live in has been torn apart in a fight over nature in recent years - the most incomprehensible and depressing thing to watch - a fight over a rewilded beach. Over six years, the beach was left untouched and changed dramatically from a flat expanse of mud to a vibrant green oasis full of plants (from 0 to over 200 species!), birds and insects. It was given protected status, but the anti-nature group have just had a win and half the vegetation has been removed again. It's hard not to despair in the face of this hard headed determination to "neaten" the environment. But hope has to prevail and your stories help so much!