Much of the UK was until within living memory, countryside with compact villages interspersed with market towns and the occasional city. We are now increasingly degenerating into areas of urban sprawl with the countryside ever shrinking, ever poorer in bio-diversity. Run-off from must-have, paved driveways; vast roofs of industrial estates, out-of-town retail parks,†often built on flood plains combine with our fickle pollution-influenced†weather, to cause increasingly regular flash floods.
Most people are somewhat disconnected with the natural systems that our very existence depends upon. A recent survey suggested that 60% of the public thought that the state of nature was the same or better off, than 10 years ago. This is very simply, not true. Wildlife is fighting and losing, a rear-guard action.† We must triple our efforts to accommodate our environment, or, future generations will be reaping a very bitter harvest!