It might be preaching to the converted, but I think one has a duty to publicise the facts about the effects human beings are having on their environment, even if other people couldn’t care less. Young people, hopefully, do care – it is their future at stake.

The following appeared recently in the New Scientist:

“According  to the first global assessment of plants, by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, a fifth of all plants are threatened as habitats shrink worldwide. Plant habitats are changing and more than 20 per cent of all terrestrial plant species are now at risk of extinction. The team used data from global conservation monitor the IUCN to estimate the number of threatened plants, and assessed land cover using satellite images taken between 2001 and 2012.

Mangroves saw the greatest change, with more than a quarter of their area transformed over the decade – often to shrimp farms or golf courses. While human activity was the main driver, climate change is having a large impact, says Kathy Willis, Kew’s director of science. “We really need to stop and think what we’re doing about land planning on a global scale.”

And this concerns only plants. If you add wildlife and the disappearance or reduction in the number of species, you get two mass extinctions. The issue of land planning should be part and parcel of the fight against climate change. Unless we find a way of moderating the growth of population and get serious about fossil fuels we, the humans, will join the extinctions. Yes, there are hopeful developments, but is the man in the street listening?