The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3031 by Angharad Copyright© 2016 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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Despite being last to bed, I awoke at six and did contemplate a bike ride but in the end decided just sitting on the patio with my laptop and looking at the news was enough, that and a cup of tea. The lovely thing about the internet, compared to the days before it, is the access to one’s favourite newspaper. In the old days, getting a copy of the international edition of the Guardian was expensive and tedious. I’d have to go to one of the big towns like Mao or Ciutadella and trawl round the newsagents. Few of them tend to keep it because it’s so expensive. Instead I can call up the news on the website and feed my prejudices or inclinations—only joking, we Guardian readers are so unbiased it’s untrue—well part of the statement is.

It was interesting to learn that there are four species of giraffe plus nine sub-species and that some are more endangered than others. St Attenborough had written to the government via the Independent to ask them to ban all experimentation on primates as they suffer just as much as humans. (I presume this doesn’t mean the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Pope—do they count as humans?). Apparently, they’re used extensively in Europe and the US for neurological experiments—that sounds pretty awful to me, but I’m squeamish when it comes to torturing animals under the guise of science.

Then something which did catch my attention and made me feel ill. Australian scientists have published a paper which shows that humans have destroyed a tenth of the world’s last wild spaces in the past twenty five years. This doesn’t refer to indigenous tribes who are usually hunter gatherers, but more industrialised ones who are destroying things like rainforest or savanna for the use of agriculture. The report was in Current Biology and usefully was downloadable, so I could read the original paper. I must check if they have that one in the library back at the university because it certainly looked interesting.

One of the major causes is population growth, though again with drug resistant pathogens spreading like wildfire, it’s apparently very bad in Thailand, so people going there for their SRS or other treatment might take note, the likelihood of some sort of plague draws ever closer.

I find the wilful stupidity of people increasingly infuriating. We know that resistant microbes are increasing like mad and thus we need to limit the numbers of antibiotics available except by prescription. We also need to outlaw the use of antibiotics to increase the size of various animals grown for eating, especially chicken—farmers know it’s ridiculous but they put profit before prudence. However, if some epidemic arises, like bird flu, the fact they might be the first victims, is comforting, not. Antibiotics are wonderful drugs but they’ve been abused all over by doctors, patients, agriculture and probably many other groups. The consequence is antibiotic resistant infections which killed over nineteen thousand people in Thailand which adjusted to the size of populations is higher than Europe or the US.

Like the destruction of habitat, the overuse of drugs for personal gain will shorten our time as the dominant species on this planet and maybe if we become endangered, those who have sold our children’s inheritances for their own profit may realise at last that you cannot eat money and it only works in societies with a product surplus. In times of great public unrest as would follow epidemics or major warfare, the surpluses disappear and while black markets thrive, if the situation became dire, money would become irrelevant as food or other scarce items would become the currency.

Sometimes I think it’s a good thing that Simon can’t read my thoughts because his whole work experience is based on the use of money and mine is virtually to condemn its pursuit for personal aggrandisement. Anyway, they say opposites attract so it might explain how we ended up with each other.

My reverie was interrupted by Danielle arriving and asking if I wanted some breakfast—is this my child or a fairie clone?—and who proceeded then to make me some. While we were eating all the others arrived and it became a free for all but somehow everyone got all they needed and on them asking what we’d do today, I suggested going up to my favourite Menorcan city, the old capital of Ciutadella.

I’ve described this before but to me it’s a delightful place especially if you’re wealthy, there are some amazing houses near the harbour and usually some equally outstanding boats in the port as well as the ferry to Mallorca. The cathedral is always worth a visit and there is also a small fort near the harbour which I think was built by the British, who ran Menorca for a while and made Mahon or Mao the capital. They also built the two main roads, one of which still bears the name of the British Governor of the island, Cami de’n Kane. The British like the Romans before them introduced roads and civil service to their colonies and eventually railways—the Romans obviously didn’t have railways but they did quite well without them, the British did and thus created the largest empire ever seen but couldn’t manage to get the trains to run on time at home. Actually, it’s not quite true and the original large railway companies like GWR actually did prioritise punctuality. It’s arguable if the re privatising of the railways has been a success or not, partly because much depends upon one’s political viewpoint.

Somehow we set off for Ciutadella by midmorning and Stephanie followed me to find a parking space. There we decided to stay together and went to see the cathedral first, had lunch in a cafe with tables outside, and then walked down by the harbour and took the kids round the fort.

On the wide walkways near the harbour going towards the fort, the girls could use up some of their pent up energy and run about in the heat and post prandially I was mildly surprised no one was sick and even more so that they asked for ice creams. I’d paid for lunch so Stephanie coughed up for the ices.

Walking back to the town centre we did a few shops and souvenirs and postcards were bought. It seemed the girls had promised huge numbers of their friends they’d send them a post card. As this was going to get ridiculously expensive I told them to buy the cards, using their own money—that reduced the numbers slightly—and that we’d post them back at home because the post was more reliable and probably cheaper. It also turned out that they didn’t have all the addresses they wished to write to.

Of course, they also weren’t too familiar with trying to write loads of postcards—it is so tedious, it’s untrue. But that was for them to find out and me to let them. I did buy a couple which I sent from Ciutadella to Tom, Simon and Stella and one to Diane.

The final act of the visit was left to a Bonelli’s eagle which soared over the edge of the port and then back inland, cheering me up and making me want to go bird-watching again tomorrow.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/08/humans-h...