If there is no home for natureThere will be no evening starling chatter,Nor swifts left to soar.There will be no hedgehogs nestled in your garden,No woodlands to explore.Spring will pass without a bluebell,And June without a bee.Butterflies will flounder without a flower,And the birds without a tree.If there’s no home for nature,The wonders on our doorstep will diappear.There will be no place to play,No meadows. No moorlands. No wilderness. No adventure.If there’s no home for nature,There will be no nature.
This poem was printed in the Guardian last week, and struck me to the core, the last couplet ringing in my ears long after I had read it.
The poem is unattributed, but was published as part of an advert for the RSPB, whose strapline is: “Giving nature a home”. I had just come home from a wonderful week in the Yorkshire Dales, where I had enjoyed the wildness, the beauty and the variety of wildlife we saw. We watched peregrine falcons through telescopes as they nested on the great limestone cliff of Malham Cove, we explored nature reserves with rare peat plants around Malham Tarn, we swam in the plunge pool of a waterfall. Our many walks were frequently interrupted by my dad and my aunt getting the binos out to add another bird to the list written on a scrap of paper Dad carries in his pocket, and by my sister Emily producing the "Guide to British Wildlife" to look at every interesting butterfly or damselfly which landed near us.How can we put all this at risk? The Climate Coalition has asked us to name the things we love which are threatened by climate change, and these rare and beautiful habitats are one place which may be damaged by floods or unusual droughts as the weather changes. But we also threaten biodiversity with human activity more generally. Is not every engineering project an opportunity to enhance or destroy the natural beauty which surrounds us? Thank God for all the ecologists who categorise the habitats we will damage and try to move the newts and badgers out of the way first… but how much are we willing to consider where else can they go as we try to build new homes, shopping centres, roads and even new railways (even HS2) on the places they once lived? If we do not protect what we have, if we leave no home for nature, there will be no nature.
UPDATE May 2015: There is a new consultation in progress requesting responses about updating the EU's legislation to protect Sites of Special Scientific Interest and other wildlife reserves from development. In the last few years, such "updates" have usually reduced environmental protection and therefore it's really important that we respond robustly to the consultation. If you care about nature and protecting the habitat that our wildlife depends on, please submit a response via the RSPB website below, and email your MEP
www.birdlife.org/naturealert
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