No need to oppose all change

Wanstead is a place that has slowly evolved over the centuries. Go back 100 years, then the area was pretty rural - fields abounded - Wanstead really was a village. Then, the railway and motor car came, bringing their own infrastructure. Housing increased as well, with the various estates being built. I have lived in Wanstead for over 50 years during which time there has been slow change. The fundamentals like the high street, George and Christchurch Greens have remained pretty much unaltered - improved in some ways, with more focus on biodiversity and attempts to make the area more people focused. The biggest changes have been the building of the M11 Link road under George Green - something I and many others opposed. Previously there had been the building of the A406 and M11. Both have brought noise and particulate pollution to the area, as well as some economic benefits. It would be good to live to see those roads occupied by quieter electric vehicles. The thing is that change happens, if it didn't we would still be in caves. Some of the change is good, other less so. As we get older there is a tendency to oppose almost any change - it is a sort of stop the world I want to get off syndrome. A tendency to look back with nostalgia but forward in a negative way. It is an understandable insecurity. The oppositionism though is often quite irrational. Why for example do we get so concerned about ancient monuments that maybe in decline. No problem raising money to restore them - the only value really being historic, looking back. Yet, things like wind turbines and solar panels - technology needed to save the planet, upset some people aesthetically. But what is the difference between wind turbines and windmills - similar technology but widely different perceptions amongst the public. The wind turbine is the infrastructural development of the modern age - it says who we are in the way say a castle did for those living in the 15th and 16th centuries. Change is inevitable on the path of life. Not all of it amounts to progress and some should definitely be opposed. There is a case in much that we do today to consider a step back. But the changes need to be considered in the round for the betterment of life on earth, not opposed simply because some don' t want to see change.