Wednesday, July 13, 2005

EcoRant

I read an article last night on the deforestation happening in Brazil and boy did it annoy me. Not because I am pro deforestation, but because of its holier than thou attitude. In the course of becoming the fourth richest country on the planet we (the UK)pretty much destroyed all our ancient woodlands. And now we have achieved this position of wealth are we trying to replant our trees. No. We are subsidising our farmers to grow more food than we need and allowing them to render large areas of our countryside sterile with pesticides and herbicides. Our seas are overfished and polluted and many of our indigenous species are in serious decline. So before bemoaning the fate of the rainforest and pointing the finger at poorer countries lets put our own house in order.

What can you do? well join your local wildlife trust. As well as helping them to do great conservation work you get access to their reserves. Shropshire wildlife trust also offers lots of walks and events, especially stuff for children, and there are more talks on Badgers than you can shake a stick at (I have been to exactly none but I'm sure they are great). I expect the others offer similar stuff. For those of you who want to make a more physical contribution there are always tasks in the reserves for volenteers and all sorts of information on wildlife friendly gardening, building bug boxes and the like. Link is to the side. So go on, do your bit and join.

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