Recently, UK Wildlife organisations joined together to give our wildlife a health check. Although there were some elements of good news, the most basic overview of the statistics gives a grim picture:
60% of the 3,148 UK species assessed have declined over the last 50 years and 31% have declined strongly.
You can read more, including the full State of Nature report or the one page summary on the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) website.
Against this background it is particularly shocking that the UK government seems to be making no attempt at all to fulfil their own promise when elected to be the 'greenest government ever'.
A recent bitter disappointment for campaigners is the news that Oaken Wood, an area of ancient woodland in Kent is to be destroyed to make way for a quarry, despite two years of campaigning by Kent Wildlife Trust, the Woodland Trust and the Save Oaken Wood campaign.
Meanwhile the Government is keen to press on with HS2, the high speed rail link between London and the north of England, despite the fact that 33 areas of ancient woodland will be damaged to make way for it. HS2 will only be of benefit in reducing carbon emissions if it forms part of a sustainable
transport scheme. Also, any such scheme that damages irreplaceable biodiversity, such as ancient woodland, cancels out much of its benefits in reducing carbon footprints. The HS2 Action Alliance have produced a series of reports on how HS2 fails to produce its promised benefits on the economic, environmental and jobs creation fronts.
As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.
5 comments:
It's always really sad when reading stats about dwindling species numbers. I really hope it isn't too late to turn things around...
I have Always felt that cutting a tree down is not so far from committing a murder. One could say I am exaggerating and then it depends on many shades of meaning anmd necessity, nevertheless my feeling never changes, even when they cut trees down because they consider their roots and branches Dangerous...they should find another way. Then cutting oaks for a quarry is definitely a crime!
I despair Juliet - Politics, Elections - that is all they are interested in really. They make promises with no intention of keeping them. I am thoroughly disenchanted with the lot of them.
Thank you, Juliet, for your clear and succinct presentation of these facts.
so much for progress!
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