Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Is ‘naturalness’ worth preserving?
From John Clare country to ancient fenland, Ed Miliband’s solar farm approvals risk industrialising precious rural spaces — we must find greener solutions that don’t sacrifice our countryside’s beauty, writes DAVE BANGS
A reedbed at Chippenham Fen (Pic: Hugh Venables/Creative Commons) and a pasqueflower (Pic Bernard Dupont/Creative Commons)

AS I stood on the top of Mount Caburn, a chalk promontory of the South Downs, and looked east, I could see, stretching for many miles, the landscape that has been created over 140 million years. Scarps and combes, floodplains, ridges and rivers.

I could “read” this sleeping giant of a landscape and its deep-time story in all its natural detail, under its soft blanket of woods, pastures, crops, and villages.

I could picture the immense tectonic heavings that had thrust up the Wealden Dome, and I could see the Ice Age torrents, freezings and meltings that had eroded the chalks, clays, and sandstones back to their current forms.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
green philo
Books / 16 January 2026
16 January 2026

BRENT CUTLER welcomes a valuable contribution to discussions around the need to de-carbonise energy production

Erhai lake
Climate Crisis / 9 October 2025
9 October 2025

One of the major criticisms of China’s breakneck development in recent decades has been the impact on nature — returning after 15 years away, BEN CHACKO assessed whether the government’s recent turn to environmentalism has yielded results

The River Avon at Warwick Castle, Warwickshire
Environment / 18 August 2025
18 August 2025
Jiayuguan railway station featuring a taxi stand and local public bus transport, 2017 / Pic: Livewireshock/CC
Features / 10 July 2025
10 July 2025

PAWEL WARGAN juxtaposes the thriving industrial centre Jiayuguan in China, with the prevailing images of decaying East European great industrial cities