Saving nature

Climate change action needed

CLIMATE CHANGE is rightly close to the top of the political agenda, and for all who live in Yorkshire, a matter very close to their hearts because of our glorious landscapes and rich diversity of wildlife.

The threats to both from a remorselessly warming climate cannot be underestimated, and there is no doubt that action to combat it is a matter of urgency.

Nature group Rewilding Britain’s latest report underlines this, particularly in its finding that habitats are changing much more quickly than animals and plants can adapt to, leading to the potential loss of species.

But there is a glimmer of hope even so, in that restoring habitats such as woods and peatlands can halt, or even reverse, the decline.

This is good news and underlines the need for concerted action. Careful management of landscapes, whether by rewilding or working with farmers and landowners, is essential if the effects of climate change are to be mitigated.

It will require a greater degree of co- operation between all concerned than has sometimes been the case in the past, when the arguments between the need to preserve environments and produce food from them have resulted in stalemate.

That, though, has changed. There is much more consensus now about the pressing need to act before irreversible damage is done, and the debate is being conducted in a constructive atmosphere.

This is very much to be welcomed. Above all, saving our precious environments must be at the forefront of the minds of all involved.