Environment first (From Penarth Times)

Environment first

EVERY Saturday morning until the election, a group of people who between them support a range of political parties will be outside Penarth Library with a banner which asks'Why Isn't the Environment the Top Election Issue?'

Why are we doing that?

At the end of March, 1,360 scientists in 95 countries produced a report called the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

It contained the following statements:

"The ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted."

"There has been an unprecedented period of spending the earth's natural bounty...we may have distanced ourselves from nature, but we rely completely on the services it delivers."

"Continuing degradation of most ecosystem services and continuing growth in demand for these services cannot continue...In may cases it is literally a matter of living on borrowed time."

The seriousness of these statements about the future for our children and subsequent generations is simply not emphasised in the priorities that are being put forward by the main political parties.

Far too may of these are short-term, when the essential need is the long-term survival of the human race.

The main issues of the report are climate change, the extinction of species, the collapse of fishing stocks, the growth of algal blooms in oceans and lakes, the overuse of water reserves, the spread of new diseases, and the spread of animals, plants and microbes that are alien to local ecosystems.

We in Wales are already using three times our share of the earth's resources. Thus the seriousness of these issues stares us in the face.

The cost to those who follow us hardly bears thinking about, but think we must.

We invite all citizens to take up these issues with candidates who are standing for election.