Friends of the Earth: Bexley

I am the Co-ordinator for Bexley Friends of the Earth in Bexley, South London.

Like many, I have little faith in any government's policy towards the environment. There is a lot of hot air and Greenwash spoken affecting support of environmental issues, but on the ground in real terms, little is done to bring about real change.

It is frustrating for people such as myself, who wish to see real positive environmental changes, and see governments consistently failing to seriously and properly address issues, which in the long term will only leave future generations with very real problems.

The lack of commitment to addressing, or even seriously considering long term issues, represents bad policy. Governments seem to be solely concerning themselves with headline-grabbing issues of the day, rather than investing in serious cross-term planning.

I think it is important for Governments to address important issues, even if they are not at the top of the popular priority. Good government should do what needs to be done and not just pander to public sentiment of the day.

As an environmentalist, I would like to see Governments and other organisations, including the Friends of the Earth, place far more emphasis than they do on the very real threats to our biodiversity.

No-one denies that Climate change is an important issue that is it rightly on the agenda. But threats to our biodiversity are in my view very real, and biodiversity has always been regarded as somewhat of a poor relation in the overall priorities of the environmental movement.

I am concerned that unless concerted effort is made to increase the attention focused on these issues that this 'poor relation' status may continue to be the case, and prevent biodiversity achieving it's rightful place in strategic planning. In my opinion, this outcome could only lead to irreparable damage to our natural landscapes and wildlife habitats, followed inevitably by the loss of high numbers of species, forced into extinction, leaving a damaged and impoverished landscape as its legacy.

We must stop damaging our environment. We must think carefully about what we do and employ long-term sustainable environmental planning, encompassing everything we do, and we must stop pandering blindly to 'economic growth'. Economic reality can all too often mean that environmental reality is ignored.

Ultimately, we should care about the world we live in, employing good sustainable planning that benefits all, and is not simply a means of creating short term economic benefit that in reality benefits relatively few.

Future generations will not thank us for the damage we are doing to the planet and our lack of the willingness, commitment, and foresight needed to address these issues will only increase the seriousness of the problems that future generations will have to face.