Hiding behind a shelf of books, Dr. Seuss’ Lorax tells the cat from the animated movie “Flow” that he speaks for the trees. (Illustration by News Decoder)
This article was produced exclusively for News Decoder’s global news service. It is through articles like this that News Decoder strives to provide context to complex global events and issues and teach global awareness through the lens of journalism. Learn how you can incorporate our resources and services into your classroom or educational program.
Tim Redfern feels like he’s hit a wall. He’s single, in his mid-50s and hates his job. He’s only slightly obsessed with birds — bluebottles, collared doves, hedge sparrows — and hopes the last three years he spent developing an environmental software will absolve his guilt for being complicit in the climate crisis.
After a disastrous pitch of the software to his company, Tim knows he’s had enough. He quits his job and comes face to face with a confronting question at a life-coaching session: when was the last time he felt joy? Tim could only think back to 30 years ago, when he got his hands dirty to help nature during his ecology module at university.
So, a new business begins: turning gardens into habitats for wildlife. What ensues then is the entertaining and chaotic plot of “Habitat Man”, Denise Baden’s fictional rom-com humanizing climate change.
“It’s a story about a guy who gives up his job to make people’s gardens wildlife friendly and he digs up a body and he falls in love and so on,” said Baden, a writer and professor of sustainable business at University of Southampton who’s been researching how the news, especially stories about climate change, affects human behavior.
Baden’s story has no alarming statistics. But it does point out things that many people may not know like how using a worming or flea treatment on your pet might affect the wildlife in your garden.
“A lot of people wrote in saying they changed their will to have a natural burial because they didn’t know that traditional burials have really toxic chemicals that pollute the entire area,” she said.
