Thousands of trees are being planted, but what can we do to help environment?

Piers Motley-Nash (Image: Piers Motley-Nash)

So, after a bit of a health scare at the start of the year and having various scans done, I've almost had a clean bill of health, with one more test to do.

Medical science has already saved my life three times (not including basic medicines which save people from slight infections which would have been fatal only 100 years ago). I've had osteomyelitis in my shin bone when I was 15, pneumonia in my 20's and most recently sepsis, possibly from the Woodbury Common necrotising fasciitis.

So, I'm quite pragmatic about death...after all I am just one of almost 8 billion people overpopulating and polluting this beautiful planet. I have no death wish, but I also have a huge disgust of humanity and what I am doing to our world.

Recently my aunt posted on our family Whatsapp group. It was a stunning film about the success story of rewilding Yellowstone Park with wolves. I won't go into the details, but it has transformed the whole environment!

My response on a Friday night, after a couple of pints, was "Thanks, I know about this, but we humans hunted the wolf to extinction in the first place."

I went on in my rant to suggest what we really need is a very successful virus to wipe out at least 80 per cent of the human population to give our planet a chance. This being during the second lockdown.

My wife said I had gone too far and upset my aunt who was just showing some beautiful wildlife photography. My son said what it really needed was for the virus to wipe us out completely!

It is incredibly hard to lead our lives if we really understand our place within the environment.

What can one person do when nationwide plans have us trying to plant new trees while over 4000 sq miles was cut down in the Amazon alone in 2020.

There is no simple answer to this, fossil fuel use, plastics, chemicals all need consideration.

Unlike the few remaining wild indigenous populations in the Amazon which inhabit an area before exhausting it and moving to another while it regenerates (like ant colonies denuding one area before moving to a new one and the ancient seven year farming practice where a field is left fallow, known as shmita in Hebrew), we cannot move off this planet to let it regenerate.

Earth is sadly stuck with us and while we should try to use less of everything, reducing our population by a global decision to reduce birth rate, I think, is a massive area not addressed by any environmentalist.

A rule of a maximum of two children globally might just save more than many other ideas...and hopefully a wolf back in Scotland to naturally cull the deer.