Help save the planet

HAVE you seen those movies that tell you that the end of the world is coming and that we are all going to die?

Well I was at a conference recently where we were told that a meeting in China in 2020 could be the most important meeting ever for humanity.

It concerns biodiversity, which is the wide number of species we have on earth, and if we don’t start to get our house in order before then it will be too late.

The new WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature) states: “We are the first generation that knows we are destroying the world and we could be the last to do anything about it.”

Everybody OK? Do you want some good news? Here it is, there is something we can do about it. Yes, each and every one of us can help to save the planet.

Many of us already recycle most of our rubbish but we can do more. Many of us feed the birds in our gardens but we can make our gardens even more environmentally friendly and even volunteer to work in parks and nature reserves.

We keep hearing about the threats of extinctions of creatures near and far away. Our bees are in trouble, hedgehog numbers have fallen rapidly in 50 years and even the sparrows and starlings we welcome into our gardens are struggling.

But, remarkably some of our animals are increasing, red kites are flying overhead looking to nest here after hundreds of years away. Tiny long-tailed tits have increased in numbers so we can see flocks of these beautiful birds.

And the Wildlife Trust is close to helping a long-extinct butterfly back to Manchester.

For our wildlife to survive, for its chances to improve, there must be protection. We already have a framework in the European Union which offers laws to look after our creatures.

And for Brexit to really work we want to keep those safeguards and add to them, to give stronger protection to wildlife and the environment.

The government has promised an Environment Act to protect your wildlife and, let’s not forget, your health and well-being, but we must ensure that this act has teeth.

We want everyone who is concerned with nature to meet up, face-to-face with their local MP. We want constituents to ask their MPs to ensure that the Environment Act is not just a piece of paper.

We want you to demand that your elected representative makes a stand for wildlife.

We can supply the questions. We can supply a poster so that you can ask your MP to take a selfie showing their support for the environment. Just go to our website to find them – www.lancswt.org.uk.

The point is if we don’t all make a commitment locally then how can we complain when things begin to disappear, before our grandchildren get a chance to enjoy them? »»To support the work of the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside. Text WILD09 with the amount you want to donate to 70070.