One of the easiest, cheapest and most visible means at new councillors’ disposal to prove that they are different, is to act like nature is a priority….because it should be! The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world and the simple truth is that if we wipe out invertebrates, we not only wipe out the birds and mammals that depend on them, we wreck our own food supply and shorten our children’s future.
David Attenborough, Professor Dave Goulson and others have gone to great pains to try to impress upon us that time is running out on the climate and biodiversity fronts. No wonder, then, that people up and down the land have been howling in anguish at the devastation perpetrated on nature by councils up and down the land.
Here’s a mini ecocide in Poole:
Naturehawk continues:
Please reconsider this policy
Vikki Slade! [LibDem, BCP Council] This biodiversity crisis is real and it’s a ticking timebomb. The horrific cutting of these wildflowers & grasses, (which harboured most of the invertebrates in the cemetery) will have a catastrophic effect on summer food for the birds.
Expressing horror at the butchering of verges on the outskirts of Ashburton last week, I was told that the community should have put up a sign saying ‘do not mow.’ I had no idea! I imagined it made economic and environmental sense to leave the glorious banks of grasses, cow parsley, daisies, dandelions and other important sources of pollen in all their beauty and environmental utility. What is more, leaving them in their natural state would have avoided using petrol-powered equipment to devastate them and pollute the air.
Contrast the approach with this:
Yes, councils have largely stopped spraying. Now it’s time to stop mowing!
I strongly recommend everyone reads ‘Silent Earth. Averting the Insect Apocalypse’ by Professor Dave Goulson. You’ll find yourself turning into a much-needed champion of invertebrates. If the insects go, they’re taking us with them.