Anja Murray: Will the people of 2122 look back in anger at what we have (and have not) done?

While filling out the census, ecologist Anja Murray wonders what kind of world we are leaving for our descendants

Tortoiseshell butterflies are a common and everyday sight to us here in 2022

I spent a lot of time thinking about what to say in the time capsule box for Census 2022. I’m still thinking about it, even though the census forms are now returned. The exercise prompted me to think about who will be reading this in 2122? What kind of world will they be living in?

I’d like to tell the people of 2122 about the cuckoo. How each spring this bird flies here all the way here from Africa, fond of Irish fields and the bounty of wild insects they contain. I would describe how the cuckoo calls out all through the day in May, a steady and uplifting soundtrack that always makes me smile. I’d tell them about how people get excited by the first annual arrival of the cuckoo and eagerly write to the newspapers to say when and where they heard the first cuckoo call of the year.