Restore Nature Now: Finding camaraderie and inspiration on a march for nature

A giant butterfly swoops behind me, an avocet parades in front, and a penguin tells me to “protect the poles at the polls”. I am walking in the most flamboyant march I have ever attended. As I walked from Marble Arch, I came across two hand-painted placards of a horse in a forest fire and kingfisher wishing for cleaner rivers. 

The Restore Nature Now march was very well attended, very beautiful, very spectacular and given very little coverage. When I told some people about its delights, I got a few snippy social media comments from those people who do nothing so are free to criticise everything.

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One of the misconceptions about a march like that for Restore Nature Now is that it is primarily protest. It is important to show the numbers of people who are committed to fighting to preserve nature and make us aware of many scientific issues which are, again, often rarely reported.

It was also wonderful to see the National Trust and Extinction Rebellion under the same umbrella. But perhaps the most important purpose is camaraderie. Many may be fighting alone or in small groups and the rejuvenating energy that comes from a mass gathering is vital. 

What made this my favourite day of the year was a collision on Piccadilly. As we walked east, we were met by a procession going west. No kingfishers on their placards. What they held aloft was a little more roughshod, but equally full of strength and intention.

“This is the lesbian renaissance”

“We don’t want rainbow capitalism”

“Dykes for trans rights”

This was the dyke march. 

The eyes of both marches met and there was cheering, for the diversity of nature, for the diversity of sexuality.  

A few weeks later, I am stood next to Gandhi in Parliament Square. This time banners include “Women of colour in the global women’s strike” and “No jail for peaceful protest”.

This is a gathering for those given longer sentences for planning peaceful protest than those who have recently committed actual violent protest. I talked to scientists and activists and activist scientists and nervously went to speak. I felt a little fraudulent when so many are at the frontline of the battle. I decided to perform poetry. One about the Restore Nature Now march and one about soup and art. 

An iceberg crumbles 

A species dies 

A glacier retreats 

The world fries 

So humdrum 

This destruction 

The fires that rage 

Don’t make the pages 

Fails to stir a paid opinion 

The artless typists 

Waiting for something 

to be truly pissed about 

Add the complexity of life 

And their companionship with capitalism 

doesn’t drip ink 

Doesn’t lubricate the pen 

BUT SOUP!

SOUP !

SOUP!

The whoops of easy outrage 

For soup on sunflowers 

Broth on Van Gogh 

Like vichyssoise on Vermeer 

Like custard on a Klimt 

Like lasagne on a Leonardo 

Trifle on a Turner 

Or meringues and mango mousse on a Modigliani 

Pot Noodle at a Pissarro 

What next!!

Throwing faces at masterpieces!!

Black Forest gateau on a Gauguin 

Is worse than the deforestation of the Amazon 

Celery soup on a Sisley 

Is worse than sewage in the Severn 

Placing pate on a Picasso 

Is worse than pesticidal genocide 

The ability to regrow a rainforest 

Or rebuild an atmosphere 

May take more effort than 

Wiping Vegemite off a Vermeer 

Or waffles off a Warhol

(which is something he might have wanted) 

Better to butcher a planet 

Than bouillabaisse a Basquiat 

I am again empowered by others. Who said you get more right wing when you become middle aged. 

Though there are loud people trying to drag us back, over the last few weeks, we have seen more and more people demand that those who want to move forward are given space and given platforms. 

Robin Ince is a comedian, writer and broadcaster.His book Bibliomaniac (Atlantic Books, £10.99) is out now. You can buy it from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

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