There are many practical ways in which we — individuals, groups and Government — can make a difference to our planet, both locally and nationally. As the General Election looms, we present 10 areas where improvement is badly needed.
1. Turn on the night
Artificial night light obscures the celestial magic of natural wonders, such as the Aurora Borealis, drives biodiversity loss and negatively affects our circadian rhythms and physical and mental health. We endorse Dark Sky International’s recommendation to reduce average illumination levels by switching to dimmers, motion sensors and timers; using LED lighting and warm white bulbs for reduced illuminance; and directing the angle of essential light downwards. The worst pollution comes from commercial buildings and offices, where whole floors are left lit up at night; these establishments should be required to turn off unnecessary indoor lighting.
2. Give British food more shelf space
Problems with food packaging extend far beyond the excessive amount of plastic used. Labels can also be misleading, because the presence of a Union Flag doesn’t automatically mean that the item was grown in the UK; it can mean merely that it was processed here with ingredients from abroad. As well as setting aside more space for British produce on supermarket shelves, there should be an EPC-style rating that takes into account criteria such as how the product was reared or grown, where it came from and how it has been transported and packaged.
‘The Government must introduce and enforce harsher penalties for companies and individuals who continue blindly to pollute UK waterways and seas’
3. Bring back local abattoirs
Small abattoirs are closing at a rate of 10% a year, forcing farmers to shut down operations and animals to travel distressingly long distances to slaughter (some more than 200 miles). It is especially a problem for smallholders and smaller-scale farmers of native breeds and does nothing for the oft-quoted mantra of eating locally. A Smaller Abattoir Fund of £4 million will award grants of between £2,000 and £60,000 at a 40% intervention rate (deadline September 30) and Rishi Sunak promised up to £3 million at the recent Farm to Fork summit for new and mobile abattoirs, a figure that, considering costly building supplies, seems minimal for a countrywide proposition.
Another problem is the lack of skilled labourers post-Brexit. Efforts have been made to redress the problem — which affects many other sectors — but it needs higher priority status and the implication of visas or apprentice schemes. The planning process, also, could be streamlined.
4. Standardise recycling
Although the Government’s Environment Act 2021 aims to streamline and simplify household recycling by 2026, the system is still too confusing; we need a single, nationwide recycling system, plus further emphasis on reducing and re-using. Currently, the UK only recycles on average 42%–44% of our rubbish (Wales is easily the best of the four nations) and, shamefully, produces more plastic waste per person than almost any other country in the world. Depressingly, Greenpeace claims that more than half of the household plastic packaging (the equivalent of 3½ Olympic swimming pools every day) that the Government says is recycled is, in fact, sent abroad.
5. Decarbonise housing
According to the Climate Change Committee, buildings produce 17% of the country’s emissions due to poor insulation and fossil-fuel usage — older stock poses the largest problem. We are calling on the next government to launch an ambitious scheme, for instance offering tax breaks for retrofitting works, as well as working in partnership with the finance sector to achieve rapid, fair greening of the built environment. Although new housing is generally far more energy efficient when finished, it has high carbon, environmental and biodiversity costs and it is not being properly policed either, so rules should be tightened to ensure developers genuinely offset the impact of their projects.
The pollution of our coastlines and rivers needs to end.
6. Make water polluters pay
We applaud the sterling work done by such bodies as the Rivers Trust, Surfers Against Sewage — which is calling for an end to sewage discharge into UK bathing water by 2030 — and Client Earth, which is demanding high protection status for a minimum of 30% of the ocean and all UK Marine Protected Areas by 2030. The Government must introduce and enforce harsher penalties for companies and individuals — sadly, this includes some farmers — who continue blindly to pollute UK waterways and seas.
7. Halt soil degradation
Government figures suggest that nearly 10 million acres of soil are at risk of compaction and nearly five million acres from erosion (What lies beneath). The farming industry needs to be helped financially to work towards curtailing reliance on fertilisers (an issue that is causing protests in Europe) and, in turn, should monitor far more closely the run-off of polluted water into waterways, both from crops on heavily impacted soil or from livestock — the chicken farming that has degraded the River Wye is a prime example. If we look after the soil, by encouraging more organic/regenerative farming practices, less fertiliser will be used and won’t end up polluting water.
8. Scrutinise greenwashing
There needs to be greater scrutiny of prominent firms that either produce excess carbon emissions or profit from carbon production, yet continue to justify their activities through ‘greenwashing’. For too long, firms have used excess profit obtained from harmful practices to try to clean their name, rather than their pollution.
‘Polarised debate is halting progress on environmental aims and the work of myriad individual projects is devalued’
9. Sign up for actions, not protests
We are already a nation of altruistic volunteers, but if all the people who band together so readily for mass protests put their energies into constructive volunteering, things could be better and they would earn public sympathy. Instead of leaving everything to land-owners and beleaguered, cash-strapped councils, they could get stuck into maintaining footpaths, collecting litter, picking fruit, creating hedgerows and ponds, clearing waterways, planting community orchards and gardens, linking nature reserves with green corridors and running after-school clubs.
10. Work together
This is probably the hardest to achieve, but polarised debate is halting progress on environmental aims and the work of myriad individual projects is devalued if not linked to others. Both the fieldsports and environmental lobbies want the same things in many issues — to preserve wildlife and beautiful spaces — but there is arrogance on both sides and it all gets bogged down in point-scoring, outdated class warfare and a refusal to accept that certain species need management to ensure the success of others. Many individual projects are commendable and set an example, but they would be much more valuable if they were linked. The GWCT ‘Farmer Clusters’, which link habitat and target geographically relevant species, are the blueprint.
The Country Life Green Manifesto is part of the Sustainability Issue, which is on sale now
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