OnTheWight always welcomes a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below.
This from Angela Hewitt from Naturezones. Ed
How important is the natural environment?
It is abundantly clear that without the environment we cease to exist. How so? You might ask.
What has nature ever done for us?
The question should be “What exactly has nature ever done for us”.
The easy answer is food. So how does that work?
If you paid attention at school you will know it is all about pollination and the “insect industry”.
Then there is the quality of the soil to enrich the growth of plants (plants rotting down to naturally fertilise the land) and of course it all needs water as well as light!
Even a wooden building depends on nature
Let’s look at a building made of wood.
We see trees growing all the time, but it still needs that same resources as the food we eat – the insect industry, the right soil and water and light.
In my ignorance I had no idea we were importing fertiliser from abroad and it had to travel through the Strait of Hormuz. How sustainable is that?
Clothes, Rubber, Medicines, Paper and the most important thing of all the air we breath – OXYGEN are ALL created by plants.
The insect industry is under threat
But there is a big problem. The natural environment has to be maintained so that the insect industry survives and indeed needs to increase – dramatically.
We have done so much to destroy these essential little workers. Pesticides, habitat destruction indeed entire lifecycles have disappeared.
Here is the problem. Like the NHS there is no money to be made in looking after the environment.
It should be able to look after itself, but we have interfered with it so much it has now lost the ability to reproduce on the grand scale required to protect us.
An industry that needs investment, not charity
The Natural Environment is one “industry” that needs to be heavily invested in. Especially now, when food security is becoming an issue.
There are many nature charities in the country including our own at Naturezones, but they are charities not companies making profits. These charities are all reliant upon donations and unreliable grants.
In nature, the “profit” is food security, this is the “growth” required, which is in the plants.
Nature recovery could create jobs
This is an area where more jobs could be created. Practical jobs in land management. Increasing biodiversity. Putting back what has been destroyed.
Compensating for Industrial developments as well as housing developments. Developments that are enveloped within nature rather than flattening nature.
Time for Britain to lead
The environment and nature recovery should be top of the list for job creation. This is where the Government should be putting a huge chunk of its resources before it is too late.
Great Britain needs to lead the way, just as we did during the Industrial revolution, not sit back waiting for the rest of the world to wake up.
It’s time to “step up” and be a leader, not a too late follower.
And maybe, maybe, it will improve everyone’s health and reduce the NHS burden.
