NATURE’S FUNERAL

News about the parlous state of nature and the natural world continues unabated, yet there is not much sign of our politicians doing much about it (nor about anything else important for that matter – they just bicker and quarrel instead of getting down to work seriously with skilled application on things that really matter. Earth day, the global event to highlight protecting the planet, was 20^th April but you probably missed it given the paltry reporting of most of the MSM.

One star exception, though, was a mock funeral march of mourners for Earth supported by Chris Packham who has rightly spoken out about biodiversity collapse and said, “If the political will existed, we could restore nature at landscape scale. We must restore nature now.” Politicians, note the first four words of this quote!

At Betts, almost all of our work now has a focus in protecting and enhancing biodiversity, and here I do pay some tribute to the British politicians who have made Biodiversity Net Gain mandatory for most new developments, even if it is still rather flaky in implementation and associated regulations. You may be surprised, though, at how many of those we speak to have little or no idea what biodiversity is, let alone why it matters. Many want chocolate box landscapes with shorn grass and lollipop trees; they dislike, even hate, our longer grass meadows, tall, thick hedgerows, rewilding areas and brambly thickets. These attitudes are less apparent amongst our younger citizens, I am pleased to say, and it is obvious to me that high quality education in ecology and environmental science is having an effect – three cheers for the teachers and lecturers. Sadly, it seems that very few politicians are educated about nature, or maybe just paid no attention at school!

There is not much time left. The underlying factors comprise a long list: species extinction, climate change, pollution, over-intensive farming, over-development, failure to ban environmentally toxic herbicides and pesticides, nutrient run-off from chemically over-fertilized crops, the plating of thousands of hectares with solar panels instead of fitting them to roofs and over unvegetated urban spaces, invasive alien species such as non-native predatory flatworms, Indian balsam, Japanese knotweed, signal crayfish, American bullfrogs and dozens of others, Brexit-driven zealotry propelling a lack of collaboration by the UK government with the EU, etc.

Betts Ecology will continue to do all we can to help nature, but it needs a sea change in our local and national government, and those around the world, to make a real difference.