With the forthcoming elections, I thought I would do a blog post about the different parties policies regarding the environment.
Some might say the economy is todays most pressing issue, or that the NHS is more important. However, I stick by my view that the natural world should always come first. Let me give you some facts to show you why this is.
- Globally our planet has lost 50% of its wildlife in the past 40 years alone.
To put that into context: The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. Lets scale that down to 46 years. We've been here 4 hours. Our industrial revolution began one minute ago. And we have lost half our wildlife in under 12 seconds.
- We rely on the natural world every single day to provide us with medicines, natural resources and food. Yet we still are disrespectful towards it.
It is estimated that in 100 years there will be no forest left. Every second an average of 1.5 acres are cleared to rear your food. We use 121 natural remedies for our medicine that is only found in the rainforest, yet we still burn 7.3 million hectares of it per year.
- We are not the only species on the planet.
There are 6.5 million (known) land species on Earth. The total coverage of land on Earth is 57,308,738 miles squared. Therefore each species should occupy just under 9 miles squared each to be fair. I do understand that there are obviously lots of smaller animals which have smaller territories. However, there are equally lots of huge animals which need equally huge amounts of land. Humans occupy 83% of the Earth, according to the National Geographic (including agricultural land). This is ridiculous.
- We need the natural world to stay alive.
20% all our Oxygen is produces solely by the Amazon Rainforest. Bees pollinate our crops, contributing £200 million to the economy each year in the UK. However, bee populations are in rapid decline all over the world, with many species already extinct.
What I'm trying to say is that these problems won't just go away. We have caused them, and we need to fix them. Not everyone has the determination to get out and actively help. But that's fine. All I'm asking you do to is think carefully when voting this week. Get the tories out for starters. I personally favourite the Greens, but Labour also have some good environmental policies as well.
The Conservatives will:
- Carry on with HS2
- Appeal the ban on fox hunting
- Continue badger culling
- Protect the sport of shooting
Labour will:
- End the badger cull
- Ban wild animals in circuses
- Keep the hunting ban in place
- Tackle global warming and air pollution
The Greens will:
- Ban the use of chicken and rabbit battery cages
- Put and end to the badger cull
- Expand our national parks
- Reducing pesticide use, helping bees
- Aim to ensure everyone is close to a green space
- Protect woodland strictly
- Expand the network of marine conservation zones
- End grouse shooting
- Produce a strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions
So, vote Greens on the 7th of May, to do your part in protecting our natural world for future generations.
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