Another day, another enviro warning. Will we get the message?

SWITCH on the telly, turn on the radio, read a newspaper, scan your social media. However you “consume your media” these days there will be one consistent theme that appears on news agendas pretty much every day: our world is in trouble, and the environment under extreme pressure.

Climate change, deforestation, erosion, pollution in the oceans, pesticide use and urban expansion are all putting the planet under pressure and seeing huge declines in large numbers of wildlife species.

Despite all the messaging, we humans still seem a long way from getting the message. The campaign group Surfers against Sewage recently launched a million mile beach clean campaign and reported large volumes of PPE as a new plague on our beaches. Just about any town or city in the UK will endure rush hours when hundreds of thousands of humans will sit on their own in cars in traffic jams despite decades of messaging about car sharing, and using public transport. Walk just about anywhere in the country and the levels of litter blighting the land display an extraordinarily callous regard for nature and the environment.

Today we record the Woodland Trust’s latest report that warns that the UK’s woods and trees are rapidly approaching crisis point in the face of a “barrage” of threats, including habitat damage, climate change and nitrogen pollution, a report warns. Just 7% of the country’s native woodland is in a good ecological condition.

Woods and trees are facing imported diseases, invasive plants and direct loss of woodland to development. Wildlife that makes its home in woods has seen steep declines, with woodland birds down 29% since 1970, butterflies declining 41% since 1990 and plants down by 18% since 2015, the report warns. In light of the findings, the conservation charity has called for efforts to quadruple woodland creation, restore ancient woods, remove invasive species such as rhododendron at a landscape scale and tackle air pollution. The trust wants legally binding targets in the Environment Bill to restore nature, including precious ancient woodland – areas where there have been woods since at least 1600. And it wants to see ambitious, effective and well-funded woodland policies and grants for landowners and communities to look after existing woods and ensure native woods are a major part of expansion efforts – rather than leaving it to the market to create conifer plantations. Experts will discuss and debate the merits of the trust’s demands. The Government might listen. New targets might be set, or even strategies agreed. We must all hope that this happens, and that whatever is put in place is put into action, quickly, deliberately and relentlessly. Woodlands and trees in the countryside and cities are valuable to people as well as wildlife, providing carbon storage and flood protection, as well as boosting health and wellbeing. And we must all begin to understand that every single one of us has a role to play. Of all the messages out there, one is very clear: Our world needs looking after.