The Times - UK (2022-01-01)

the times | Saturday January 1 2022 2GM 13

News

Nadeem Badshah

Betty White, the multiple Emmy
Award-winning actress best known for
her role in The Golden Girls, died at her
home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, less
than three weeks before her 100th
birthday, it was announced yesterday.
The cause of death was not disclosed.
Jeff Witjas, her agent and close
friend, told People magazine: “I thought
she would live for ever.”
White was the last surviving member

of The Golden Girls, a sitcom about four

older women in Miami, in which she

played Rose Nylund. She also played a

television hostess on The Mary Tyler

Moore Show in the 1970s.

President Biden tweeted that she was

a “cultural icon”, adding: “Betty White

brought a smile to the lips of genera-

tions of Americans... Jill and I are

thinking of her family and all those who

loved her this New Year’s Eve.”

White appeared on an experimental

television transmission in 1939 and be-

came a stalwart of comedies, game

shows, talk shows, anthology series,

soap operas and made-for-television

films in a career spanning eight

decades. She said her late husband

would joke: “Meet my wife, one of the

pioneers in silent television.”

She rose to fame in the suburban sit-

com Life With Elizabeth, which was

broadcast from 1953 to 1955. She won an

Emmy in 1996 for playing a version of

herself on The John Larroquette Show.

In an interview with The Times in

2010 about her long career, she said: “I

don’t see this as a resurgence. I’ve never

stopped working. I go from one thing to

the next. I feel very happily employed.”

Ryan Reynolds, who starred along-

side White in the 2009 romantic

comedy The Proposal, said: “She was

great at defying expectation [and] man-

aged to grow very old and somehow,

not old enough. We’ll miss you, Betty.”

She married Dick Barker, a US Army

Air Corps pilot, in 1945, and Lane Allen,

an agent, in 1947. In 1963 she married

Allen Ludden, who died of cancer in

1981. She said: “He was something so
      special. For a year I said, ‘No, I won’t
      marry you.’ What wasted time. He was
      the best in the world and I miss him.”

The National Trust has been accused of
undermining efforts to restore wildlife
by failing to be open about “rewilding”.
The trust declines to use the term and
has rejected requests from the charity
Rewilding Britain to allow one of its na-
ture restoration schemes to be included
in a list of such projects.
Professor Alastair Driver, director of
Rewilding Britain, said the trust was
“hiding” the fact that it was carrying
out the process in several sites because
it feared a backlash from tenant farm-
ers and neighbouring landowners.
Driver, a former head of conserva-
tion at the Environment Agency, said:
“They are holding back the develop-
ment of nature conservation through
rewilding by not using the term. The
National Trust could do conservation a

National Trust ‘hiding’ its rewilding

great service by declaring those sites

where it clearly is rewilding as rewild-

ing sites and being open about it.

“Rather than hiding away from it,

shying away from it, they should use

[the term] where it’s relevant to what

they’re doing.

“And in so doing, they will be able to

educate, inform and inspire huge num-

bers of people to understand what it is

and that will lead to more rewilding.”

Rewilding projects are springing up

across the UK as many landowners opt

to reduce livestock, intensive farming

and game shooting and allow nature to

recover. Ed Sheeran, the singer, this

week revealed his plan “to rewild as

much of the UK as I can” by buying up

land and planting trees.

The Crown Estate, which manages

264,000 acres of farmland, woods and

uplands, has met the campaign group

Wild Card and discussed its call to re-

wild royal land.

Rewilding Britain lists 58 projects

covering 205,000 acres on its website.

But many farmers and members of

the shooting industry have criticised

the movement. The National Farmers’

Union has said that it would make the

UK more dependent on imported food

with a higher carbon footprint.

The trust, one of the UK’s biggest

landowners, has reintroduced beavers

at sites in Somerset and the South

Downs and has pledged to create

62,000 acres of new wildlife habitat by

2025. It is also restoring wildlife on the
      eastern moors near Sheffield and trees
      are being allowed to regenerate natu-
      rally on 2,500 acres.
      The trust has promised that the
      moors will be “managed with the grain
      of nature” but refused to call it rewild-

ing. A trust spokeswoman explained it

did not use the term because “it means

so many different things to different

people”.

She added: “We are aware that people

tend to think of rewilding as the rein-

troduction of species to our landscapes

such as lynx, wolves or wildcats for ex-

ample — and not wider landscape man-

agement and interventions.

“We instead prefer to talk about our

projects individually and to describe

what we are doing in more detail, so

that communities, our neighbours and

stakeholders can be confident that they

understand the need for the conserva-

tion work that we are undertaking.”

Driver said the trust was failing to

heed guidance from the International

Union for Conservation of Nature,

which has published a definition of

rewilding and ten basic principles that it

involves. The body, which has 1,

member organisations including gov-

ernment agencies and conservation

groups, describes it as “the process of

rebuilding, following major human dis-

turbance, a natural ecosystem by re-

storing natural processes”.

Phil Stocker, chief executive of the

National Sheep Association, said end-

ing human management of land could

damage the beauty of the countryside.

“Most of our really attractive land-

scapes and wildlife habitats in this

country have got something to do with

human activity. The whole of England

has been managed for centuries. To

think that we just remove that and al-

low things to rewild and [think that]

ecology and nature will sort itself out is

naive at best.”

The contribution of Ed Sheeran’s

rewilding, letters, page 26

Ben Webster Environment Editor

S

oldiers are

testing a robotic

dog called Spot

that can navigate

rough terrain,

deliver supplies in war

zones and examine

bombs (Larisa Brown

writes).

The dog has an arm

that can be used to find

objects, and sensors that

can detect radiological

and nuclear materials.

It weighs 70lb, can

climb stairs, open doors,

pick itself up after

falling over and drag

objects weighing up to

44lb in its jaws.

The dog, created by

the US manufacturer

Boston Dynamics, was

put through its paces on

a remote farm near

Swindon. It can operate

in extreme temperatures

heat and moves at about

3.5mph.

Sources said the army

was getting five robot

dogs this year, including

another model, the V

from Ghost Robotics.

James Gavin, head of

future capability group

at Defence Equipment &

Support at the Ministry

of Defence, said:

“Instead of using

personnel, it can be used

in dangerous and

complex urban

environments for

resupply missions,

significantly reducing

risk to life of our

soldiers.”

He said it was not

designed to replace the

army’s real working

dogs.

In some

environments, the robot

dog would be given a

suit to protect it from

any radioactive

contamination.

It could also use laser

scanning and gamma

radiation imaging to

collect valuable

information.

Gamma ray radiation

imaging can detect

nuclear materials,

explosives and drugs.

The robots could be

especially useful as an

asset for bomb disposal

teams because they can

run to a suspected bomb

and provide a data feed

to the soldiers, keeping

them out of harm’s way.

In a hostage situation,

the robot would be

equipped with various

payloads such as radios

and walkie talkies so

soldiers could

communicate with the

captors.

A spokesman from

Boston Dynamics said

the robots could “help

operators assess

potentially dangerous

situations from a safe

distance”.

The spokesman also

added: “Any

weaponisation of the

robot is strictly

prohibited.”

The V60 dog can be

equipped with 5G data

masts and positioned in

remote regions so troops

are provided with

coverage of such

locations.

It can walk for about

6.5 miles, and comes in

two sizes — one of about

100lbs and one of about

20lbs. It can carry a

payload of up to 30lb.

The dogs are being

tested as part of a

programme called

“Project Theseus”,

which is intended to

transform the army into

a more modern and

lethal fighting force.

As part of the project,

soldiers are looking at

technology that can help

them with the last mile

before the front line, so

troops are kept out of

harm’s way.

“Rather than having a

soldier making a

treacherous journey to

deliver medical

supplies, you can give

them to a robot and they

can do it”, said an army

source.

Boston Dynamics is

owned by Hyundai, the

South Korean car

company.

Spot has been loaned

or sold to organisations

such as police

departments and the

military, and used by

businesses on building

sites, oil and gas rigs and

even on film sets.

Spot’s the

difference:

army tests

robot dog

The robots can drag heavy

objects in their jaws and

wear a protective suit to

venture into areas where

radioactivity would keep

regular soldiers at bay

TIMES PHOTOGRAHER RICHARD POHLE

Betty White’s

career spanned

eight decades

Golden Girl whose career started in television’s infancy dies aged 99