AFON
Careering Ahead – by Findlay Wilde
Welcome to our series of blog posts in the run up to the general election (7th May 2015). Over this month AFON members will share their own Visions for Nature: what they want the natural world to look like by 2050 and how they want to get there. We have created a hashtag on Twitter so why not join the conversation? What’s your #VisionforNature?
I have hundreds of visions for nature in my head all the time. Each vision tumbles into another and sometimes leaves me wondering how we are ever going to sort things out. Not one of us can do it on our own. For every good thing that we do for nature, there are hundreds of things going wrong for wildlife across the world.
It sometimes seems that no matter how much you speak out and how much you do, you are still going backwards. Other times, it could just be a “non-birdy” friend in school showing a fleeting interest in a buzzard that makes you feel like you’ve taken a massive step forwards.
The AFON conference filled me with so much hope, seeing and hearing all those younger people in one room speaking up for nature and the older people giving up their time to offer advice and share their experiences. But still we need a louder voice. So where do we look to find that voice.
Well surely one of those places should be in the political world and with the people that can influence and make big changes happen. Everything we need in life comes from the natural world, but sadly it seems that even this is not a good enough reason to look after it.
I decided to watch the leaders debate when it was on, to see how those 7 party leaders feel about the natural world. I chose a selection of words to listen out for, to see how important the natural world is compared with the man made world. The words chosen were environment, housing, un/employment, crime, climate, education, NHS, taxes, conservation, Europe, immigration, energy, economy, fairness and hen harrier (well you never know, someone might have mentioned hen harrier).
Well I managed to sit through the 2 hours of the leaders debate and I also managed to mark off every time one of the key words was mentioned. With such a mix of political parties on the stage, I was feeling quite hopeful. Here are the results:
It was one of the most disappointing and eye opening moments I’ve had. I understand that the other policies are important, but what upset me most was just little the environment featured in the 2 hours.
All the words that should really matter to us all got barely any mention. The one thing that we all truly cannot live without, NATURE, isn’t even a concern for most of the politicians that were on that stage. I think it’s so worrying that looking after our shared planet is not important enough to win votes.
When did they stop caring? How can they keep taking and giving nothing back, surely they can see that one day there will be nothing left to take.
The Malta Spring Hunting referendum that has just taking place is a great example. Where were the powerful political voices shouting out against it, where were the legal people shouting about it in Europe, why wasn’t it on the front pages of all the news in the build up to the vote to raise awareness and help ensure the right decision was made?
There were so many talented and intelligent people in that room at the AFON conference, people that can make a difference, but we need to put ourselves in positions where we can be heard and we can change things.
So my vision for nature is to see the next generation of planet protectors trying different ways to get our message heard; politics, law, journalism are probably not normal careers for conservation students, but maybe they should be.
Some other words I did notice mentioned a lot were future, youth and balance. Well as a “youth” I will keep pushing for a better natural “balance” for my “future” and all of yours.