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Voting
It's rather depressing to realise how far the environment is down most parties' list of priorities. You read though loads of promises, and it simply isn't there.
Yet, it is my genuine belief (backed up by ever incresing mounds of research) that in the long term, the economy is dependent on a healthy environment, third-world survival is dependent on a healthy environment, and the rather beautiful world that we live in will be largely destroyed unless we take better care of it.
This isn't just about saving the tiger or any other individual species: it's about our own need for clean water, pollution-free air, stocks of fish that are neither contaminated with mercury nor fished to commercial extinction, sustainable supplies of timber, and a stable climate that will allow farmers to grow crops.
What is also extremely depressing is that one has to vote for a package of issues. I believe the Lib Dems have completely unrealistic spending plans as they seem to be offering free university places, free care for the elderly and higher pensions (and where is the money coming from?). Yet, they are the part with the greatest committment to the environment (at least on paper). Though I notice the Conservatives want aviation to be included in European Emissions Trading Scheme, which is to their credit.
I don't really trust any party to deliver on specific issues. I remember the first time I voted (Conservative as it happens); the particular election pledge that got my vote (it was related to education and direct-grant schools) was one of the ones that wasn't kept.
I shall probably vote LibDem simply because I have to use my vote in as environmentally-friendly a fashion as possible, but I shall wince every time a politician cites my vote as supporting some of their other issues.
And I regret that I can't thank Labour for things like civil unions for same-sex couples. Each party has some issues where I think they are correct, but at the end of the day we've only one planet, so I guess there's only one way I can vote. (I'd like to vote Green, but their manifesto is too socialist even for me. As far as I'm concerned, environmental protection makes *economic* sense.)
Yet, it is my genuine belief (backed up by ever incresing mounds of research) that in the long term, the economy is dependent on a healthy environment, third-world survival is dependent on a healthy environment, and the rather beautiful world that we live in will be largely destroyed unless we take better care of it.
This isn't just about saving the tiger or any other individual species: it's about our own need for clean water, pollution-free air, stocks of fish that are neither contaminated with mercury nor fished to commercial extinction, sustainable supplies of timber, and a stable climate that will allow farmers to grow crops.
What is also extremely depressing is that one has to vote for a package of issues. I believe the Lib Dems have completely unrealistic spending plans as they seem to be offering free university places, free care for the elderly and higher pensions (and where is the money coming from?). Yet, they are the part with the greatest committment to the environment (at least on paper). Though I notice the Conservatives want aviation to be included in European Emissions Trading Scheme, which is to their credit.
I don't really trust any party to deliver on specific issues. I remember the first time I voted (Conservative as it happens); the particular election pledge that got my vote (it was related to education and direct-grant schools) was one of the ones that wasn't kept.
I shall probably vote LibDem simply because I have to use my vote in as environmentally-friendly a fashion as possible, but I shall wince every time a politician cites my vote as supporting some of their other issues.
And I regret that I can't thank Labour for things like civil unions for same-sex couples. Each party has some issues where I think they are correct, but at the end of the day we've only one planet, so I guess there's only one way I can vote. (I'd like to vote Green, but their manifesto is too socialist even for me. As far as I'm concerned, environmental protection makes *economic* sense.)
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You'd like the environment would be higher up the list considering Chairman Tony made it one of his main thrusts for the presidency of the G8 and European Union...
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However, the rest seem to be even *less* cut out for governing the country, so in the end I'll probably vote that way on May 5th as well...
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OK, once you get into it there's tribal loyalty too, but it starts off with the compromise.