Landscape Research

England. Public awareness and appreciation of wildlife has also increased but ‘Most people probably do not make a connection between human numbers and wildlife declines’ (p. 209) and the greatest cause of problems has not always been faced: ‘most of the activities damaging wildlife in Britain today are strongly influenced by a single primary cause, notably the sheer number of people now living on this small group of crowded islands’ (p. 40). Studies are presented here of other parts of the world — in some parts of the world improving conditions such as female literacy and higher standards of living have lowered birth rates and checked population explosions, backed up by government policies. But this problem is not always recognised in Britain and there are no population policies currently in existence, unlike the situation in some other European countries. The author argues that we have a moral obligation to face facts — our numbers are not self-sustainable, we sequester unfairly ‘large amounts of global resources, inevitably at the expense of poorer, developing nations’ (p. 248). Although efforts have been made to curb immigration we have no policies to encourage people to limit their family size while income review would require a revolution in political will. In the meantime, ‘there has been no let-up in the downward trajectory of wildlife in Britain, leaving the country one of the most nature-depleted in the world’ (p. 254). (The 2019 State of Nature report noted how 41 per cent of the UK wildlife species have declined, with 133 species assessed as having been lost ‘from our shores’ since 1500. Some 26 per cent of mammals risk disappearing altogether, particularly the Wild Cat and Greater Mouse-eared Bat. A recent BBC report claimed that one in seven wildlife species were now facing extinction. The State of Nature report regarded pollution as a major factor — something the author feels is not the whole story’...). A recent Israeli study has confirmed that the ‘mass of humanity is greater than all land mammals left in the wild’ (The Times, 2 March, 2023), reflecting the scale of humanity’s impact. Clearly the author, an Emeritus Professor in the University of Sussex, feels passionate about this subject and fears that not enough people consider seriously the present situation. The book presents his views clearly and concisely with well-researched background studies from across the world. It is well illustrated with some delightful colour photographs. Moreover it is an interesting and compelling read presenting a problem of maximum importance. The conclusion is incontrovertible: ‘even current numbers are not sustainable in the long term’ (p. 179) ... ‘human numbers are already too high for long-term sustainability’ (p. 229).