The below declaration will be sent to the leaders of the four UK countries ahead of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Canada this December. We will also be sending it to press.
Please sign the declaration.
To the Prime Minister, First Minister of Scotland, First Minister of Wales, and First and Deputy First Ministers of Northern Ireland.
Rachel Carson’s landmark book Silent Spring heralded the start of the environmental movement and brought our destructive, extractive relationship with the natural world into public consciousness. Sixty years later, nature is in a worse state than ever.
But politicians and the governments of the UK have a once-in-a-generation chance to stop, and reverse, the loss of nature.
In December this year, countries will meet for the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity COP15. This conference is due to set out a plan to save nature by 2030. But previous global targets for nature have been completely missed, making the dire prospect of a silent spring - and all that would signify - ever more likely with every passing year.
The cost of this complacency will be immeasurable. Continued economic decline, widespread food insecurity, growing social injustice, and increased risk of new diseases are but a few of the predicted impacts on humans if biodiversity loss is not halted. It was also made clear at COP26 that nature and biodiversity are critical to mitigating climate change - highlighting the possible knock-on effects of not tackling the biodiversity crisis.
Now is the moment for you, as our leaders, to heed Carson’s decades-old warnings: there is still time to save our future - but we must halt and reverse biodiversity decline now.
Unlike the world’s habitats, young people will not be silenced. We demand a different future where nature is valued, protected, and nurtured. A future where nature is no longer treated as a commodity but valued for its integral role in Earth’s life support system on which we depend, and where policies to protect it are strengthened.
The ongoing destruction of nature is deplorable, morally bankrupt, and robs future generations of a liveable world. We urge the UK’s governments and politicians to act now.
To that end, we call on you to:
Attend the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 in person
Enshrine in national law the global targets that will be agreed upon there
Commit to halting and reversing the loss of nature across the UK by 2030
Carson hoped her life’s work would stem the flow of biodiversity loss. Today, we must turn the tide.
Nature cannot wait any longer.
Written by:
UK Youth for Nature
Signed by:
