This joint petition, supported by over 50 environmental NGOs is not going too well – only a few more than 2000 signatures in the last week despite the support of the National Trust, WWF-UK, old Uncle Tom Cobley and all…
I’ll say again that it is a marathon not a sprint, but it would be good to see a few more signs of movement very soon.
You can do your bit, please, by sharing the petition on social media and mentioning it to your friends and colleagues. Nature needs more protection and we need to get it in writing from politicians.
#stateofnature petition https://bit.ly/3kjLIsX
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This is truly baffling. Petition weariness must play a part of course, but while a member or on a mailing list of many participants, I have heard from only five. The only place I have seen it mentioned more than once is this blog.
We are being lead to believe that covid has given more people an appreciation of nature and yet that is certainly not reflected here.
I am sure that as members magazines and newsheets come out it will get a bit more publicity, but it does seem strangely lacking in any sense of urgency. Why put your name to something and then not push it hard.
I also believe that this strange notion of a moving target is not helping. If you must set a target, then set it high.
‘He aimed low in life, and missed.’ Roger McGough.
I tend to stay out of social media but I’m a member of several wildlife conservation charities and haven’t heard from any of them about this. No media coverage either so if it wasn’t for this blog I wouldn’t have heard about this at all. I’ve posted a link on a couple of forums though and asked friends and family to sign. With the badger cull consultation under way I would hope this petition gets used as an example to the government that mass culls of wildlife isn’t reversing natural decline and is already showing their lack of will to hit the promised targets. Ecological cascade from removing large numbers of wild animals from habitats can’t be ignored either.
I agree with Paul and Dave on the lack of publicity and urgency, but would say it’s also a crushingly uninspiring piece of text being offered to put your name to. A legal measure that: ‘sets a legally binding ‘State of Nature’ target to begin to reverse nature’s decline by 2030’.
I think most of us dare to hope that we’re already ‘beginning’ to reverse nature’s decline, and that we now need some tough legislation to hold government’s feet to the fire about it. Maybe some more enthusiastic text about the Climate Change Act analogy and government letting down our individual efforts with bad policy decisions might help?
“We are being lead to believe that covid has given more people an appreciation of nature”
That started about one day into lockdown in March last year when the nature-catastrophised public’s response to the crisis was to obliterate footpaths headlands wildflower meadows and anywhere else they could trample for their compulsory daily exercise and skiploads of garbage were transferred to beaches everywhere as soon as possible and the trade in stolen dogs boomed so that sheep could be terrorised and killed and excrement spread liberally over any green space and now it will take a monumental effort just to pick up the junk the nature-loving public have left around the gaff so perhaps someone somewhere has realised that much of the time until 2030 will be taken up restoring nature to the woeful state it was already in before we were told how we had realised we needed it so much so maybe it’s a good thing to back off a weeny bit before it gets too out of hand and the goose’s golden eggs are beyond salvation.
The commodification of nature was never going to be a good idea.
Petitions, of all kinds, have become ubiquitous and most people realise that they have precious little impact on political decisions. I think this one has failed to really engage, possibly because of its vague target and woolly wording.
Maybe the government that decides that violence is the best response to peaceful protest against violence and then condemns violence when it is used to protest restrictions on peaceful protest is not listening to the people as hard as they should?
Lest face it, its not really working, is it ? Quite apart from petition weariness, is this a vivid vision of the future ? What is memorable and stirring ?
Some serious leadership thinking needed.
It’s a flop; having spent my entire career right including today in corporate advertising I can clearly recognise spin. To describe it as uninspiring, lacking gravitas, drivel is an understatement; apart from the ubiquitous Packham I couldn’t write down any of the names of the other participants. But these are wealthy, supposedly influential individuals, each at the head of one of the most profitable industries here in the UK; I would be more impressed in their pleading leadership qualities if they offered to donate £150,000 each to instigate change. It’s an appalling, amateurish campaign, fronted by easily forgettable people, banging on yet again about the State of Nature in the UK, the public know that, they don’t need reminding, but it needs people at the head of these cash-cows to show some governance qualities that’ll make them want to believe that these people are the right personal for the job ahead. On a day we remember 126,000 deaths, this petition deserves to be kicked into touch, where it belongs.
Thomas – wealthy? I haven’t seen Craig bennet’s name in the Sunday Times rich list for ages, come to think of it, ever!