The Rape of Mother Earth

When I was a child, these fields were awash with the songs of skylarks and corncrakes.
Curlews were a common sight. Now all have disappeared.
I rarely see milk cattle in the fields. Instead they stay indoors in huge barns and the silage is brought to them.
When once the cutting of hay was late enough to let ground nesting species survive, the priority now is to cut silage early and often.
What this image does not allow the observer to experience, is the smell of slurry sprayed immediately the grass is cut in order to speed-up the second growth. If there is heavy rain, the run-off pollutes the water courses and rivers. The water creatures of my childhood such as frogs and sticklebacks, have become rare.
Economic forces have turned our farmers into the country's biggest polluters. We are paying a heavy price for our obsession with dairy products.
The contrast between the single verdant tree in mid-field and the tyre-scorched lacerated earth is a visual trope for this conflict with Nature.