Currently I have held off on making an comments on the EU referendum. Like many of you I was disappointed by the decision to leave. I don’t want my baby girl coming into a world full of uncertainty, disunity and it seems hatred towards our fellow man. The decision, I feel is short sighted and in many cases made as a result of false promises and misinformation. While part of me would like David Lammy’s call for MP’s to ignore the referendum and vote for the good of the country. Or for the petition for a second referendum to be successful, seeing as the result was so close and it has already been revealed Farage is back pedalling on putting £350 million into the NHS. An issue many people based their decision on. But this is not how democracy works. The vote was taken and the decision made. Should parliament decide to ignore or over turn the results for a second referendum it would weaken belief in the democratic process. So the referendum will need to be lived with.
A guardian article on the subject of leave and the environment.
The decision to leave leaves great uncertainty for the environment. The RSPB, wildlife trust and PTES had all come out in support of remain. Many area of natural significance are currently protected by EU laws. Wildlife friendly farming has been pushed by the EU. Many animal rights rules come from the EU. Many of these were not perfect, but they will need to be rewritten with us leaving. Now is a time for unity within conservation groups, not just within the UK, but internationally. With all the work needing doing drafting trade agreements, movement, migration, immigration, the worry is environmental issues will be low on the agenda.
Now is a time to take action. Join wildlife groups, write letters to MP’s, emails, petition the government. Make sure the good conservation work done within the EU isn’t undone.
Below are a number of environmental issues you can support quickly through the links below:
A number of leading leave campaigners believe in fox hunting with dogs. They may use the opportunity created by people being distracted by the EU news to repeal the ban. Don’t let this happen. We hold our nose up at other cultures who all bear baiting, cock fighting. Why would we allow something so barbaric with so little purpose to come back.
The RSPCA provide a letter format to lobby your local MP.
Keep bee harming pesticides out of our fields.
A friends of the earth campaign to stop harmful pesticides being used which threaten bees, and from there many other species.
Give the hedgehog better protection.
The wildlife trust-protect our marine conservation zone
The UK government have designated areas of sea as protected areas. While these rules have been flouted regularly if an effort isn’t made the oceans, we may rely on in future, will be depleted.
The peoples trust for endangered species
There are opportunities to help through surveys or action.
Wild Parenting 
Very useful blogspot. Much though i would to a degree like to think that politicians might ignore the referendum result (either by invoking the EU law that states that referendums need the side seeking change to get 60% or more or by just not moving to the necessary mechanism to actually leave the EU) I think really we need to look at what’s going to happen next now we are no longer in the EU. And it’s not all bad necessarily, the EU is very pro-business which is usually not in the best interests of the environment. However, do you know of any petitions out there already that are petitioning for EU nature laws in general to be properly and totally enshrined in UK law? For example the Nature Directives are enshrined in UK law but penalties for breaking these directives are a EU responsibility which needs now to be changed if the laws are going to mean anything in the future.
Thanks
Juliet
http://craftygreenpoet.blogspot.com
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I’ve not seen any petitions yet directly relating to EU laws, just ones that were in the motion already. Most of the major conservation organisations seem to of put out statements hoping many of the EU laws will be renewed. I’m sure it won’t be long until details start to emerge. One of the concerns is businesses may take advantage during grey area periods while we are leaving the EU to ignore environmental issues. I think when our government looks at readdressing the conservation laws in place many will change, as many of the EU laws were not perfect, enforceable or working that well. But some protection is better than none. Hopefully problems around agricultural policy will be changed as the rules for subsidies led to many farmers managing their farms in ways unfriendly to wildlife. Which is often the opposite of what was being aimed for. The intensive sheep farming for example to show you are meeting requirements for EU subsidies that you are using your land. This stopped anything having a chance to grow and succession to take place. The hope is common sense will be used we can keep the laws that have worked well and change some that needed changing.
So hopefully organisations like the wildlife trust will be keeping people informed of government negotiations for how all these things go. But as a teacher much of what happens in government will pass me by, but hopefully the small amount I can do of petitioning my MP, etc will keep the environment on the agenda. So as teacher I will carry on doing my part of making sure the children I teach value nature and then help flag issues to friends, families, etc as they come up.
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Thanks. I just hope that we can manage to ensure that the best of European environmental law is enshrined in UK law.
Juliet
http://craftygreenpoet.blogspot.com
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Great, good links as we do now need to ensure good environmental practice and funding for these too.
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