‘We can’t just preserve, we must reverse the trend’.

4 October 2020

In the first ‘State of Nature Report’ in 2013, Sir David Attenborough said that the report provided all of us with a stark warning that; ‘far more species are declining than increasing in the UK, including many of our most treasured species. Alarmingly, a large number of them are threatened with extinction. The causes are varied, but most are ultimately due to the way we are using our land and seas and their natural resources, often with little regard for the wildlife with which we share them. The impact on plants and animals has been profound’. 

Since then we have had several ‘State ofNature’ reports and all of them give the same depressing message. In last year’s ‘State of Nature’ report we learnt, not surprisingly, that there had been, ‘no let-up in net losses for the UK's wildlife’. How could there have been an improvement when too many of us seem incapable of making the changes necessary in how we live our lives and government seems incapable of making tough decisions because they want to be re-elected.

More intensive agriculture is still driving declines in farmland nature, while climate change is also having an increasing effect, with average UK temperatures rising by 1C since the 1980s.

Biodiversity and thriving ecosystems are critical for sustaining the natural resources on which our economy depends." Alexandre Antonelli, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said the report, "confirms that we can't just preserve, we must reverse the trend by increasing biodiversity locally, regionally, and globally". He warned that, despite previous ambitious goals to protect biodiversity, which were due to be met by 2020, the report showed the outcome was "almost a complete failure".

At the last full council meeting, Tony Pearce, our Green Borough Councillor, called for the Borough to work with other agencies to create a plan to tackle the emerging biodiversity crisis and, as the director of Kew suggested to work at a local level to at least try to mitigate some of the effects of climate change, housing development and HS2. The council rejected the motion on the grounds that it was doing all it needed to do.  However, a short time after the council announced the creation of a ‘joint board’ to tackle the biodiversity impact of HS2, which just goes to show the positive impact of one Green councilor.

But why, the question must be asked, should the ‘joint board’ be charged with just assessing the impact of HS2? Why not extend the reach of the board to include the impact of housing, road building and also of the increasing numbers of visitors to Cannock Chase? 

I think I feel another, ‘question to the Council’ coming on. Maybe the doctor can prescribe something!

 

Tweet