COUNTRY VIEWS
Economic rejuvenation after Covid-19 may put added pressure on the environment
While the lockdown has been good for nature, today’s need for economic rejuvenation may put added pressure on our environment, says Sara Maitland.
There can be little doubt that Covid-19 has been ‘good’ for the environment. The massive reduction in car and aeroplane traffic, for example, has improved air quality and reduced pollution; fewer people in the countryside has meant less disturbance of wildlife and it was easier to hear birdsong.
There can be equally little doubt that the pandemic has been hideously ‘bad’ for the economy. In terms of GDP, unemployment and reduced income (and we know the last two at least are very bad for our health), coronavirus has taken a huge, even frightening toll.
Obviously the Government has a duty, an obligation, to make choices between the two. But we, as citizens, also have a duty: to keep a sharp eye on the Government’s decisions and find ways to present and argue for our choices. For example, at the beginning of July, Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a speech in which he said that the current obligations in relation to crested newts [and by implication, other wildlife] were seriously hampering building development and he announced that the protective regulations might be reviewed.
At present, the developer has to investigate whether there are any crested newts or other protected species on a site and, if there are, provide ‘habitat mitigation’ for them, which costs both time and money.
There is considerable variation on how one might respond to this proposal. Some people have argued that the newt protection requirements do not cause much delay or extra costs anyway; others argue that they cause both and sufficiently so as to deter building. Some think crested newts are doing fine and don’t need protection; some people are convinced they do.
Some people acknowledge that relaxing the regulations will endanger the UK’s newt population but feel that getting humans back into work is more important. Some people feel that losing an ancient indigenous species would be a major tragedy and some think that continued unemployment would be a greater tragedy. Many genuinely don’t know how to compute the relative value of newts and building-site employment, in either the short or the long term.
And we may need to work out answers to these sorts of questions repeatedly as we move forward. Sometime in the next few months we will either have brokered a deal with Europe or we will not; either way our trading relationship with the USA will change. Quite simply, many US animal welfare standards are lower than ours or Europe’s. The reason why US chicken is chlorine-washed is because, while alive, the chickens may have been kept in conditions that would simply not be allowed this side of the Atlantic. How much lowering of environmental standards are we prepared to put up with in order to access cheap food?
The ‘new normal’ is going to create new demands on us all and we cannot yet have a clear sense of what they will be. As we meet those demands on both a personal and a public or political level, let’s try to remember the incredible beauty of this spring: the astonishing night skies, bright with stars and clean from vapour trails and flashing lights; the exuberant birdsong; the wild abundance of the cottongrass on the peat moors; the (temporary) absence of rubbish on our road verges; the sweet hush of empty rural lanes. It won’t be easy, but it will make some of our suffering worthwhile.
Have your say What do you think about the issues raised here?
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