The environmental threats we face will change life on Earth for millennia, and may leave our children struggling to survive as many already are elsewhere. These issues make others seem almost minor yet our MPs rarely refer to them let alone prioritise them as is urgently needed.
Email your candidates now by signing this petition to ask them about:
- Loss of species and the habitats they depend upon
- Climate change, energy and fracking
- Agricultural soil degradation
Please join me in e-mailing your local candidates to ask them what they intend to do.
I appreciate the positive response from non-UK residents, but only UK signatures will be sent to candidates.
Dear Candidate,
The environmental threats we face will change life on Earth for millennia, and may leave our children and even ourselves struggling to survive as many already are elsewhere. These issues make others seem almost minor yet our MPs rarely refer to them let alone prioritise them as is urgently needed:
- Loss of species and the habitats they depend upon: It is reasonable to consider that our fellow species have an intrinsic right not to be carelessly made extinct. Even from a selfishly anthropocentric perspective, a strong biodiverse natural world is vital to support the environmental services that we depend upon. It has become clear that the loss of even some obscure species can cause a domino effect resulting in dramatic environmental change. Consider corals that shelter the young fish that many fish stocks depend upon.
- Climate Change: This issue is well covered by the media, and no-one serving the public has any excuse not to be familiar with it and determined to reassess all other policy in relation to it. It brings into question the GDP growth basis of policy, and suggests that we need to re-focus on less environmentally destructive values. We also need government to put policy and funding on a 'war footing' to de-carbonise our economy. This means abandoning the misplaced and backward looking support for fracking.
- Agricultural soils: Tilling the soil, leaving it bare, and extracting organic materials in ever larger amounts ('higher efficiency') has dramatically degraded many farm soils. Mineral content has dropped by as much as, eg: 50% (for iron) over 60 years, which is reflected in the food produced and the fact that these soils only have 60 years of cropping left in them.
In the UK, that means loosing the ability to feed ourselves - a dire security risk, in a world where international supplies will likely become severely restricted over the coming decades.
Elsewhere, where wilderness still exists, it will likely be destroyed in desperation as farm soils fail, exacerbating the other issues mentioned. Solutions to this are harder with such a large and expanding world human population, but include switching to perennial crops, intercropping, no-till, the returning of nutrients to close the cycle ( and change sewage as a problem into a solution), and a determined research push.
(Your comments here)
I would like to hear what you intend to do to address these issues urgently, and can promise that many will be watching as these disasters unfold (if not addressed), reflecting back on who did and didn't do what. If you're on the side of a genuinely safe, healthy and equable future where these matters have been addressed seriously with the full force of the British state, then I wish you good luck on June 8th.
Sincerely,
(your name and address)
