OPINION: This is a controversial topic. A well-debated topic which arouses passions. I have my personal views. They are stated in a succinct way in the infographic below. It is about reality and fairness. Do we want to remain blind to human excesses which all the experts confirm are causing remarkable and devastating damage to the planet which supports us and our animal cousins who depend on us for their survival. That applies to domestic and wild animals because humans manage the planet’s wild places and in general, we are doing a horribly incompetent job of it. Yes, I paint a negative picture but it is easy to do that because it is the reality. All you have to do is research the matter on the internet.
To cement my views on the incompetence of humankind (almost exclusively men) driven as they are by self-indulgence and greed, I recently reported on the last COP meeting: COP28, at which the president of that gathering was doing oil deals behind the scenes. He was totally undermining the raison d’etre of the whole COP process. Cynical? Yes, excruciatingly so.
The reality is that money talks. Conservation of the planet does not. Until nature metaphorically speaking slaps humankind in the face with the reality of what they are doing in destroying the natural world without which we cannot survive we will continue on our merry way, blind to the consequences.
There is a reason for all those films of a dystopian world destroyed by humans. Some – the film makers – have woken up to the reality of their actions.
It is remarkable that blindly career on towards the abyss. Look at car manufacture as one small example. In the UK, huge SUVs are the most popular cars. Yes, many are EVs but it is not the time to manufacture huge cars for one driver. It is time for highly ecologically-friendly small cars that do less damage to infrastructure and which don’t push up the price of insurance to ridiculous levels.
RELATED: Do cats and dogs pollute as much as cars (infographic)?
In the old days cats lived natural lives with almost no indoor cats. But there were no vets and the food was less good – often very unbalanced for cats. In modern times, the trend is indoor cats which is unnatural leading to health issues but the food is better than 200 years ago. And there are vets but a lot of caregivers can’t afford them. Confining cats to the home keeps them safe from outdoor dangers and protects wildlife but there are dangers inside the home both direct and indirect. We have a long way to go before we get cat caregiving completely right across the board.