Why Governments Won't Protect Our Environment.

Not far from us is a little creek with pool which, amazingly, stays wet even in our summer droughts. It's a lovely little oasis with frogs and sometimes tadpoles in the pool. In summer it is the only place that still has some grass growing and I sometimes go there to collect extra grass and weeds for the rabbits, when supplies at home are getting low. What I collect doesn't put a dent in the grass growing there or cause any habitat destruction, but now and again I get that questioning look from a passer by that says, ‘are you supposed to be doing that?'

A view along the creek bed

One day we went down to the creek and down one side a huge swathe of it had been bulldozed to push earth over to a bridged area that had been collapsing. None of the rubbish had been collected up, just scooped up along with the soil and a pile of that was in the tadpole pool. I noticed we could no longer hear the frogs.

The soil piled up in the tadpole pond and the water all muddied up _{photo courtesy of @izzydawn}

An individual or small group who causes environmental damage would likely be fined or possibly imprisoned, depending on the harm caused. Yet when someone with authority does it we either don't question it, or do we fear to question it? Some will even make excuses for it; “Well, it needed to be done,” “It's to expensive to do it in a less harmful way” etc.

Yet these are then the people we continue to turn to in an attempt to protect our environment.

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A group was campaigning for signatures to put in place more, or stronger, laws to stop tree felling in areas where endangered species have been found. There are already laws in place, but despite them, deforestation in areas proven to be habitat for endangered animals is still happening. While people are trying to figure out why these laws aren't being upheld, I see a simple answer as to why.

Governments don't do things without it being of benefit to them. Ultimately the benefit comes down to money/power. They are voted into power by the majority vote from the people, so naturally there is a benefit, to a point, in keeping them happy. However, once they are in, those people aren't going to be paying any more in taxes than they already do, so implementing any laws or restrictions needs to benefit and not cost.

So lets analyse the laws for no logging where endangered species are. The benefits of implementing them are pleasing their voters. Further gain can be gotten by fining small companies and individuals that break that law. There is also the chance of adding in the requirement of permits to do any form of land clearing, which can be charged for. All these things create jobs within the government which is good for the economy and further votes. So far, so good.

Then a big, powerful company comes along and wants to clear a protected area of woodland. Of course they are told no, but they have two aces up their sleeve. The first is that they can make it more lucrative for the government to let them do it and secondly they can usually make a threat to pull a project that is bringing a lot of money into the economy and government. Offers that are hard to refuse. So they get what they want.

So if enough signatures are raised for that petition then the chances are that government will happily implement more laws, but it's not going to change what the people want changed. It merely adds more restrictions to small companies and the general populous who aren't the ones causing the damage in the first place.

I feel that their energy would be better spent in figuring out which companies are destroying these habitats and making people aware of it so that they can choose not to support those companies. Name and shame if you like.

Governments and authorities were originally put in place to represent us and help organise things that the people wanted implementing. I wonder if we've lost sight of that and handed over all our power to them, then wonder why they no longer seem to be representing us. They are not all omnipotent beings, they are people, just like us. If we want things done we are quite capable of doing them ourselves, but seem to prefer to try and hand it over. Is it because it's too much effort? Is it because we feel change doesn't happen quickly enough unless a law is put in place to force it?

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