Conservation

Last Chance to see

Sustainability takes many forms and our Transition Edinburgh South group is keen to promote many of them but where does a book by Douglas Adam, better known for his sci-fi books and radio and TV programmes, fit into our work?

Douglas Adams might not have been a fierce Green activist or eco warrior but he gave money to Greenpeace and took up the cause of endangered species after a proposal from the Observer magazine to team up with a zoologist to look for the aye-aye.

“Aye-aye what?” asked Douglas, “The aye-aye. A rare, very shy nocturnal lemur. It’s got beautiful eyes”. This proposal came from the World Wildlife Fund and the Observer who had got together to send writers and experts out into the world to find endangered species. The rationale was that the writers would have the freshness of perception that comes from complete ignorance of the subject and the experts would furnish the background and specialist knowledge.

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