Times are tough ... but nature needs our help
OVER the Covid crisis people were telling us that the last thing on their minds was wildlife and the environment.
Then, they said that nature had helped them to cope during lockdown.
Now, we are facing a cost of living meltdown and we are all concentrating on just making ends meet and paying the bills.
Our politicians tell us that they have more important matters to discuss than the environment – just months after agreeing that action is needed now to save the planet.
I’ll just repeat that, to save the planet.
We all make a big thing about helping nature, but we must never lose sight of the fact that the plants and creatures around us are actually helping us too.
Local woodlands and our Manchester peatlands and the moors can store carbon, to keep the brakes on global warming – this hot summer is a major warning sign of the problems ahead.
Insects pollinate our plants and crops, up to half of what we eat is down to our pollinating bees, wasps and all the rest of the buzzy things.
And as I watch the squabbling starlings outside my window, I know they and the countryside where I walk every day, are hugely beneficial for my mental health.
Nature is a life support system. As well as Climate Change, we are seeing an unprecedented biodiversity crisis.
Just get up on the moors where the soundtrack to any walk, at this time of year, was the song of half a dozen skylarks tumbling from the sky.
These days you are lucky to hear just one, though it can still raise your spirits.
What have we done to damage this beautiful, natural music and to deplete the numbers of this charismatic, crested bird?
I have just stopped working for 10 minutes to sit outside and watch a robin searching through the soil that I was digging in yesterday.
It made me so happy to see him emerge from behind some foliage with a juicy worm in his bill.
Just telling you about that experience has given me a warm glow. Financial worries are a huge burden on the majority of households and the threat of increased bills is a natural concern for us all, but we need those moments of pure joy to help us get through this crisis.
And unless we keep nature at the top of the political agenda, these joyful moments will become fewer and fewer.
Imagine waking up and the dawn chorus isn’t blowing your bedsocks off.
Imagine not listening to the hum of bees in your garden.
Imagine an evening walk without the thrill of spotting bats acrobatically seeking food.
These are the frightening possibilities for your children and future generations unless we demand better protections and a better chance for wildlife to survive.
As conservationists and nature lovers we cannot sit back and allow our governments to fail nature, by removing ‘red tape’ (environmental safeguards) and sitting on laws that will protect our plants and creatures.
In 2022, we face the prospects of people suffering real hardship as inflation rockets, but we are not alone in a fight for survival.
It’s time to tell our politicians that words are not enough.