The highest level of self-defence is nature conservation

I went out in the Póstelek for the first time this year because I wanted to find the scarlet elfcup Sarcoscypha austriaca. I had no luck, as the developing tiny cup mushrooms were well hidden, but I'm sure that after the significantly warm weather of week six they will be of visible size by next weekend. I was not left without a fake habitat image because I found a bottle with a red cap among discarded rubbish. My anger brought out the cynical critic in me and I imitated a cup mushroom with the cap. The majority of people are simply incapable of understanding that nature is the basis of our life and the destruction and pollution of nature will surely decimate our species, we will bring upon ourselves a tragedy of unimaginable proportions! It is in our own interest to protect what is left of nature!

Here and there in the fields the sky was reflected in patches of inland water. It was so beautiful that I took a picture of it. Freshwater is the most valuable raw material and resource of the 21st century. Tidal power plants built on the coasts are indeed practical. But those built on rivers will have a disastrous impact on our river waters and cause serious tensions between countries. Melting glaciers feed the rivers. The Tarim Basin's vast and arid desert is created by the rain-shading effect of the surrounding mountains, while meltwater from glaciers on the mountains feeds the cities on the desert's edge. It is a sad fact that the Carpathian Basin is heading towards a drier period and water scarcity will be a serious problem for people living here. We need to seriously reassess our relationship with water! Death by thirst is a terrible agony.

An apt term for the cultural landscape of Békés county is the agricultural desert. It was an ironic sight to see the irrigation system on the barren winter ground. The fields are huge open wounds in the landscape, and during summer storms it's amazing to see the wind carrying the dead soil. Large-scale monoculture production is unsustainable. In a few decades or less, the whole thing will become impossible in Békés County. In the same way, the landscape will become unlivable for people, which has always been a very difficult landscape to live in. It has never been a place where large numbers of people have lived. But the problem is not the landscape, it's the people. Israel is an even harder place to live in, yet it is an incredibly developed country thanks to its knowledge-oriented people.

The fourth picture was taken in the castle park. While no one was walking in the oak plantations, the park was getting more and more crowded by the time I finished my survey walk. Most people have become unable to move in the open air for long periods! Not only do they not garden, they don't even go hiking. The mall mentality, the consumerist attitude, the dependence on comfort, makes them unviable. It always shocks me when I see someone out in the fresh air smoking. We humans are very strange indeed, we do totally irrational things and we are extremely hostile to the living world, we have become anti-natural beings. This brings me back to the opening picture of the post, where I imitated a scarlet elfcup welcoming spring with the red cap of a bottle. In the end, we are left with plastic, and our chemicals are preserving our lifeless, collapsed civilisation.