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By Charles Clover
As a resident of Essex, where Boudicca’s troops hid from the Romans in the salt marshes which form the county’s sea-frontier, I was inevitably drawn to the launch of a report on the extent of saltmarsh around the world by 100 experts, including some from our own Blue Marine Foundation. To be honest, I thought this might be important, worthy, a tad boring and perhaps a little sad. How wrong I was.
When the experts concluded their expected explanations of the role of salt marsh in holding back the tide and as a refuge for nature, there was silence. Then the video image of a woman in the marshes of the Venice lagoon appeared on the screen. Seven people sitting dotted about the audience then silently rose – and sang. It turned out they were the Nice Opera House Choir.
Never in all my 35 years at UN conference events have I had a surprise like it. The hairs rose on the back of my neck. The whole experience was a piece of performance art entitled Salt of the Earth, a reimagining of the story of Lot’s Wife and a love letter to the saltmarshes of the world by Sophie Hunter, first performed in Venice last year. I had never seen the bringing together of art and science in this way before. What a contrast to the endless speech-making of politicians and the too-long technical panels of the UN Ocean Conference. Congratulations to all concerned.
I almost didn’t remember to ask any questions. But there on the way out was Angus Garbutt, from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Wasn’t the story of salt marshes, which in the south east of England are sinking and all over the world face inundation, rather a depressing one? No, he said. Salt marsh is growing from the Wash northwards and from mid Wales northwards too. We are growing more salt marsh and we are working out to integrate its ability to sequester carbon into the UK’s nationally determined contributions under the Climate Convention. It was another reason why the whole experience was rather uplifting.
