PETERBOROUGH CHARITY TAKES ON LARGE ORGANISATIONS
Peterborough & Fenland Green Party is delighted to congratulate a Peterborough charity which has been shortlisted for The Observer Ethical Awards (Conservation category).
It is excellent that people doing hard work based on high principles are recognised. It is brilliant that Peterborough is home to an outstanding conservation campaign.
Buglife campaigned to save a site in the West Thurrock Marshes from major development. This was a really tough campaign: no opportunities for heroics on high seas, no lovely cuddly pandas, no fabulous views of outstanding natural beauty. This was a campaign to save a patch of overgrown brownfield land, which had been neglected for so long that nature had returned to it and installed tiny populations of her rarest and most threatened invertebrates there. This was a campaign which suffered setbacks, but carried on.
Invertebrates are the insects, the spiders and the weird little blobs of life which we scarcely notice, but which are by far the most numerous category of animals. Scientists have only put a name to some of them. Many, especially those living in the sea, we haven't even spotted yet, let alone identified or named. Many of them do things we know nothing about, some help mitigate climate change, as they grow their skeletons and shells.
We know a bit more about the many invertebrates which help plants to reproduce and grow the seeds and fruit we take for granted. Most people are aware now that bees are in decline. We are now worrying about how some of our key crops will fare if the decline of our bee populations continues.
Our own lives and the survival of our children are dependent on our environment and its health. We cannot afford to forget this. Buglife works for creatures whose importance we would be foolish to ignore.
Buglife’s fight to protect species in the Thurrock Marshes exposed the weakness of recent legislation passed to protect our biodiversity. A law which proves too weak must be rewritten.
"The tiny animals protected by Buglife may not have vertebrae, but Buglife has shown it has backbone. It took courage for a small charity to go to law and take on powerful organisations. Well done Buglife. I am proud you fought for the “small things that run the world”. The Green Party is proud of you and Peterborough people can be proud of you." Fiona Radić, Chair, Peterborough & Fenland Green Party
EUROPE IS SETTING STANDARDS FOR BIODIVERSITY
It is noticeable that it is European targets for biodiversity which are leading the way in protecting species and the environments they depend upon. Our environment is common to everyone on earth and to every living thing. But while we have national governments which don’t have the will to protect their own biodiversity, we will need organisations like the EU which are able to act at supra-national level.
Rupert Read, lead Green MEP candiate for the Euro elections on June 4th says "A generation ago, the E.U. took highly-effective action against the menace of acid rain. Now, the E.U. has begun to take action against the [much-graver] menace of manmade climate change. It is easy to criticise the EU but it is essential that there are bodies that can take effective action on truly international issues. The E.U., for all its faults, is one influential such body. It is clear that EU targets on biodiversity are helpful if only because they provide a standard we can compare with what is and what isn’t achieved at national level."
The Green Party fully supports the work of Buglife but recognises that changes in the law may be required to protect our valuable environment better. If you would like to help see these changes come about Vote Green at the Euro and County elections on 4th June. Join the Green Party and help create a new world and a better future for all of us!
Peterborough & Fenland Green Party is delighted to congratulate a Peterborough charity which has been shortlisted for The Observer Ethical Awards (Conservation category).
It is excellent that people doing hard work based on high principles are recognised. It is brilliant that Peterborough is home to an outstanding conservation campaign.
Buglife campaigned to save a site in the West Thurrock Marshes from major development. This was a really tough campaign: no opportunities for heroics on high seas, no lovely cuddly pandas, no fabulous views of outstanding natural beauty. This was a campaign to save a patch of overgrown brownfield land, which had been neglected for so long that nature had returned to it and installed tiny populations of her rarest and most threatened invertebrates there. This was a campaign which suffered setbacks, but carried on.
Invertebrates are the insects, the spiders and the weird little blobs of life which we scarcely notice, but which are by far the most numerous category of animals. Scientists have only put a name to some of them. Many, especially those living in the sea, we haven't even spotted yet, let alone identified or named. Many of them do things we know nothing about, some help mitigate climate change, as they grow their skeletons and shells.
We know a bit more about the many invertebrates which help plants to reproduce and grow the seeds and fruit we take for granted. Most people are aware now that bees are in decline. We are now worrying about how some of our key crops will fare if the decline of our bee populations continues.
Our own lives and the survival of our children are dependent on our environment and its health. We cannot afford to forget this. Buglife works for creatures whose importance we would be foolish to ignore.
Buglife’s fight to protect species in the Thurrock Marshes exposed the weakness of recent legislation passed to protect our biodiversity. A law which proves too weak must be rewritten.
"The tiny animals protected by Buglife may not have vertebrae, but Buglife has shown it has backbone. It took courage for a small charity to go to law and take on powerful organisations. Well done Buglife. I am proud you fought for the “small things that run the world”. The Green Party is proud of you and Peterborough people can be proud of you." Fiona Radić, Chair, Peterborough & Fenland Green Party
EUROPE IS SETTING STANDARDS FOR BIODIVERSITY
It is noticeable that it is European targets for biodiversity which are leading the way in protecting species and the environments they depend upon. Our environment is common to everyone on earth and to every living thing. But while we have national governments which don’t have the will to protect their own biodiversity, we will need organisations like the EU which are able to act at supra-national level.
Rupert Read, lead Green MEP candiate for the Euro elections on June 4th says "A generation ago, the E.U. took highly-effective action against the menace of acid rain. Now, the E.U. has begun to take action against the [much-graver] menace of manmade climate change. It is easy to criticise the EU but it is essential that there are bodies that can take effective action on truly international issues. The E.U., for all its faults, is one influential such body. It is clear that EU targets on biodiversity are helpful if only because they provide a standard we can compare with what is and what isn’t achieved at national level."
The Green Party fully supports the work of Buglife but recognises that changes in the law may be required to protect our valuable environment better. If you would like to help see these changes come about Vote Green at the Euro and County elections on 4th June. Join the Green Party and help create a new world and a better future for all of us!
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