This column appears as part of the Winds of Change newsletter.

People have strong feelings about their green spaces. That passion is expressed in a litany of recent campaign group names. Save Cathkin Park. Save Our Green Space. Save the Roseburn Path. Save Saint Fittick’s Park. Save Paisley's Green Space.

Last year, when I wrote about Edinburgh’s new tramline consultation, one of the most contentious issues was the use of a piece of urban greenspace, the Roseburn Path, which campaigner Euan Baxter, described as a ‘linear park’.

But Roseburn Path is not a lone story. It feels like it is part of a growing movement, rooted in the appreciation that we are in the midst of a global biodiversity crisis, alongside a growing awareness that time spent in nature is good for human health.   

Every few weeks, it seems someone contacts me with a similar concern. For the most part these campaigners are fighting off housing developments. Sometimes it is energy infrastructure. Increasingly what we see is a battle of one version of green (emphasising carbon emissions), against another (prioritising biodiversity).

A tram could wreck Edinburgh cycle route, the Roseburn Path

How Torry folk are fighting big business to save St Fittick's Park

Could Berwick Bank windfarm have been better placed?

The latest green space battle involves a bowling club at Finnieston, highlighted to me by Community Land Scotland. A plan to flatten the Corunna Bowling Clubhouse on St Vincent Crescent, and replace it with a six-storey block of flats, was approved this week despite over two hundred formal objections.

There was anger around the loss of a historic building, but also an area of green space, in........

© Herald Scotland