Interview with Alan Watson

Founder of Trees for Life

Unsustainable lifestyles are a theme within this project. Of any response to my question of the biggest ecological problem within Scotland this has been the most common. Alan Watson of Trees for Life, which works to restore the Caledonian Forest, also identified unsustainable lifestyles as the biggest ecological problem. If everyone used the same resources as a person from Scotland we would need three planets. Since natural resources are finite our Earth cannot support unlimited growth. He spoke about the problems of cheap energy, new developments, centralized facilities instead of localized ones, depleted forests, wildlife extinction, and fish stocks depleted.

The reason for our unsustainable lifestyles he suggests is that we are divorced from the natural world and have lost touch with natural cycles. In nature there is no such thing as unlimited growth except in the case of cancer. Our unsustainable lifestyles in Scotland are negatively affecting the natural world in Scotland and also in the rest of the world, while at the same time denying the people from the South.

In terms of solutions he said they must start with the individual. What is needed is a 90% resource reduction and he said most people tinker at the edges by buying a hybrid car or composting but what is needed is major change within every aspect of ones life. Alan used his own choices as an example for the type of things normal people can do to make a difference. He has been vegan for thirty years and he spoke about the importance of buying organic local food. The UN has said that the raising of animals for livestock generates more carbon emissions than all of the transport services in the World (50). The University of Surrey conducted a study showing that the meat and dairy industries within the UK create 8% of UK carbon emissions while the airline industry creates only 2.5% (50). Researchers from the University of Chicago have calculated that an average meat-eater emits 1.5 tonnes more CO2 per year than a vegan, because it takes, for example, 7kg of feed to produce 1kg of beef. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the runoff from factory farms pollutes waterways more than all other industrial sources combined. In the U.S 70 percent of all grains, 80 percent of all agricultural land, half of all water resources, and one-third of all fossil fuels are used to raise animals for food (51).