Forty years ago I could walk my dog along the canal and expect to see kingfishers, water voles and grass snakes. The surface of the water would be covered with pond skaters and whirligig beetles. All these species are now gone from this area. It's heart breaking to see the damage we have done. I only hope it's not too late to turn things around.
Same here, the river we used to play in as kids had so many water voles and a good few grass snakes, now theres none. I dread to think what the future holds.
I could see frogs and small species along the river bank thirty years ago, they are all gone now, so heart breaking and sad. We should do something to rectify this situation.
Spooner McFunky same I have a canal where I live in Britain we still have damsel flies and king fishers but I’ve never seen a grass snake or an adder I’ve seen herons but not in my area and I’ve never ever seen a bittern!
Try closing the borders to reduce immigration, that way we wouldn't have to build more houses on the green land. We wouldn't need to expand farms to feed the out of control rising population. There wouldn't be as many cars on the road polluting the atmosphere. How many more people can we allow onto our small island at a rate of half a million a year?
@@keithlmj that is the most closed minded idiotic answer to a global problem I have ever heard. The mass production of meat is directly linked to climate change which in turn is directly linked to mass migration
@@ballardfrogman Yet another closed-minded idiotic answer to the global problem. The earth has been warming up and cooling down for millions of years and it will continue to do so In 1989 they said the earth would be flooding in 11 years. You have been brainwashed by the elite who are just trying to make even more money and you have fallen for it
@@dewexdewex I'm sorry but political ideology has nothing to do with it. At the end of the day mass immigration paired with a higher birth rate as a result of that means more houses are needed, more offices, more hospitals, more schools, roads, more industry. The plain fact is the bigger the population gets the more development you need. It has nothing to do with capitalism. Look at China for example. A communist country, with the largest urban sprawl, the fastest development and the most rapidly increasing population in the world. That has devastated the Chinese landscape. Take it from someone who grows endangered trees. Most of my endangered trees come from China. And that's just one category. Think of other plants, mammals birds and fish etc. Mass extinction is being driven by human demand. Not through capitalism. Leave your woeful politicisation out of this matter please. This is coming from someone who's an active conservationist.
@Malcolm R Monaghan Nope. When we were kids in the 1970s I can remember the license plate on the family car, being BLACK with insects after a few hours driving. Not any more
@@eamoc where are all the butterflies? When I was young, clouds of butterflies would take to the air if you walked across a farm field in the summer months.
My dad had to wash his windscreen, head lights & number plate about every week, to remove the dead insects. Now I wash the car whenever Sahara sand gets deposited on it.
The agricultural system is a part of the lie that sustains the status quo. We can buy ridiculously cheap food and clothing, because manufacturers compromise our environment to make it so. People don't choose the cheapest products because they agree with the way they are made, they choose the cheapest product because their wages are low and they can't see the cost of low priced goods. When we start fixing the environment with regulations we'll also have to fix people's wages or life will become unaffordable for a large number of people.
@Malcolm R Monaghan Not everybody has the time or money to be able to do that. Stop blaming the poor and encourage the 100 companies causing 71% of global emissions to face the music.
@Malcolm R Monaghan it's not about blaming others, it's about sustaining the illusion that we are all lords when in fact we are peasants. We get a flavour of "the good life" at knock down prices with massive cost to the world so we don't go out of the street and demonstrate against the chasm of inequality which is growing around us. Sure we could all eat turnips and cover ourselves with jute bags, but by purchasing faux luxury we can feel like we're part of the same world as CEOs, bankers and the like and this helps them avoid the guillotine.
It's animal agriculture that's destroying the environment . The price of meat is artificially cheap because of subsidies . Did you know that people spend more money on McDonalds than any other form of entertainment ? That's British beef supplemented with Brazilian soy . Where do you think all of those cows live ? The ones I see in the fields take up a lot more space than I do . What a waste . Id like that space back for nature .
Luke Corradine Plus as we eat more meat, the land use becomes more and more inefficient. Livestock farming uses 16x more land per calorie and 6x more land per g of protein. It's completely unsustainable. We need to cut back on meat production and consumption to take the pressure off the land. And it saves you money. And it's good for you. And the trees and wetlands that can return are huge carbon sinks. Win win win win
@@michaelrch Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962 identified uncategorically what agriculture was responsible for. And yet we are creating our own Silent Spring in 2019. How has this been allowed to happen? Everywhere I look, landscapers are digging up more driveways to pave over, And the quantity, and quality, of housing going up in my area (none of it low cost or sustainable or affordable). Trees constantly coming down whilst pollution from cars and industry increase. And electrosmog seeps into every aspect of daily life with 5G on the horizon and the sheer number of masts that will entail. There's no winning to be had here.
Hansie's Ma My top 3 for why. 1 Neoliberal economics 2 Political corruption 3 Massive misinformation campaigns by industry, especially the fossil fuel industry And a rapidly growing population I guess. But that's not easy to actually change short of a gigantic aid and education to the women of developing nations...
And where does all the agriculture go? Feeding the damn humans of course. If you want to blame something, blame humans. Stop shitting out more and more kids. If we can't really handle the current extinction with just 7 billion people, think about what it'd do with 10 billion humans.
The poor old hedgehog is a victim of road traffic. Travel down many country roads are they are littered with the dead bodies of squashed hedgehogs. The A47 is a depressing road to drive, not only are there dead hedgehogs and other small animals, but the bodies of foxes, badgers and deer. It is horrible to think of the pain and suffering these poor creatures experienced just before they died. Roads need more nature crossing points to save these animals. I often wonder if drivers would pay more attention to hedgehogs, if running over one required fitting a replacement tyre, shame the hedgehog has not evolved sharper pickles.
In "A Prickly Affair" by Hugh Warwick, I remember a chapter looking at what was killing hedgehogs. Turns out that badgers don't kill many hedgehogs in areas with low traffic because a hedgehog is a tough meal to get to. But in areas with high traffic badgers acquire a taste for the roadkill hedgehog and then will actively seek living hedgehogs knowing how tasty they are. Basically the squashed hogs by car start a runaway decline as it makes badgers realise it's a meal worth spending time on. Data was pretty irrefutable. I would support more crossings, but also more hedges in farming (improvements in farming have enabled larger fields without the need for as many hedges) as well as making gaps in fences between gardens so hogs can roam :) (they have a surprisingly large roaming area). Also although you might hurt for sharper spikes, they wouldn't be ideal. The spikes would be better for protection, but the spikes are also currently used as shock absorbers for the clumsy animals, which can fall well over a meter without injury (same source). Also it's not uncommon for hedgehogs to injure themselves by poking themselves in the eye with their quills :D, They are oddly clumsy but very durable little creatures, and have been around for millions of years. Although their decline in the UK is sad and partially human inflicted, they are also pests in NZ where they were introduced by man and have no predators (they also have no flees in NZ, as hedgehog flees are species specific and the first ones introduced didn't have any). So man giveth, and man taketh away.
@@liamhalliday8437 Thanks for sharing info about the badgers, that was very interesting. I have a pet hedgehog, they are The Cutest. And yes, it's not uncommon that he'll poke himself. Much less often, but on occasion quills will come out in such a way that if I didn't trim the quill it would cut him.
@THE ENLIGHTENED ONE I know how difficult it can be to miss animal that wait until you have almost passed them, before they dive across the car's path under the head lights beam. I wonder if down lights fitted to cars would discourage this behaviour. I think a few more tunnels under and across the roads would provide a safe wildlife pathway. My comment about hedgehogs evolving steel sharp pickles was not to be taken seriously. I simply wanted to provide drivers with an added incentive to avoid them and money and damage to the car is a great incentive. Interestingly there are reports that hedgehog behaviour has evolved. Hedgehogs now run from cars rather than curl into a defensive ball. I have long advocated fitting active street lights fitted with radar sensors, that switch on as road vehicles and pedestrians approach. These provide a ribbon of light that track road traffic. Such systems save money, provide darker sky's and may give wildlife a warning of approaching danger. I believe at least one country is trialling such a system. Unfortunately during the spring and autumn months, rabbits tend to sleep in the middle of the roads, warming themselves on the heat stored in the black road surface. It is also true of domestic cats who hunt by the road side.
Animal agriculture is largely to blame. If individuals shifted towards a plant based diet there is there potential to reduce the land needed to for agriculture as whole and we'd be able to give back more to nature. We rely too heavily on meat and dairy which are very inefficient ways gaining our food requirements. The public needs to be encouraged to change its eating patterns.
Look at the average back garden,you'll see a patch of grass&a barbecue in one corner,&maybe a few bedding plants.The habitat has gone,people are lazy when it comes to gardening,&there are far too many humans.
Yup Britian is really a shithole and I'm 13 and i find it boring how i rarely see foxes and hedgehogs and when i do i get gasped by it. I want to move to other countries with better wildlife.
@@KnownasNA fr man I’m 18 just turned n I look at Industrial civilisation I been born into n I think wats the point in any of it seriously gettin a job havin kids any of it wats the point if my kids live on a concrete covered Earth
Seemed they missed the importance of the statement........ " There are 12 million more to feed"............... Overpopulation in an industrial society is the core problem. Depopulation WILL occur.... it only depends on HOW. Will we do it with humane and careful diligence, or will we allow nature to pick her agenda, which we will certainly NOT like at all.
Thank You Kim Weaver, that was beautifully stated and I truly hope Channel 4 News reads this and I also truly hope all the people in the comment section here read this statement of yours. As what you said about Mother Nature, Kim, is so very correct and we absolutely must take heed to the wisdom in comments such as these. The outcome of neglecting our beautiful Planet will certainly spell 'DOOM' and as you've stated in your comment we most assuredly will "NOT" like Nature's agenda! Such wisdom you have, Kim is very hard to come by these days. Please pass your knowledge and humanity on, for the sake of us all. Thank You.
yes and everyone thinks that no animal agriculture will clear it all up. What the number one issue is that the dependence on fossil fuels to make pesticides, fertilizers, and manpower to keep up with non stop population growth... what can go wrong with all this?
Why is there a picture of an African Pygmy hedgehog in the thumbnail? Should be a Eurasian hedgehog, which are native to the UK, instead of the African Pygmy hedgehog which obviously isn't. I don't mean to be that guy, but...
This sort of thing infuriates me - I've commented too. The animal in the graphic is a victim of the exotic pet trade not a wild UK mammal that is under threat.
@@HelenThomas68 As the owner of an African Pygmy hedgehog, I'm not sure I'd class him as a victim. I got him from a breeder in Essex, so he was born in captivity and got used to people from the first thing. He's pretty domesticated as a result and very well cared and provided for. Clearly not an endangered native species, either way :)
Great and intelligent work from the channel 4 news team and mr Jon Snow in particular, always ahead in tackling sensitive issues, in this case the catastrophic loss of animal species due to agricultural practices and climate change. This is the England that I respect. Thank you and keep up the good work channel 4. Greetings from an italian in Dublin (which used to live in the uk) Ps. JC4PM
No, this is simply politics, channel four is known for it, this is about trying to make us farmers jump through even more hoops after we leave the EU, it's based on nonsense. We farm here with close RSPB involvement, and surprised them in the fact that the fields farmed OUR way have a higher bird number and species count than where we followed their recommendations...... Didn't surprise me. We are not allowed by law to assist the hedgehog population, we could do this very quickly and cheaply by exterminating every single stinking badger that we see, but like I said..... Not allowed, so bye bye hedgehog....... Don't blame us farmers, we'd love to help
I'm sick of watching shows like this because the solution is so simple yet nothing is ever done. STOP making babies people! Take responsibility for your actions. Don't wait for someone to fix the problem for you because it's never going to happen. All of the world's problems would correct themselves if the planet had a max population of 4-5 billion. Pollution in the water and air, a warming planet, deforestation, habitat loss, lack of employment opportunities... Why is it necessary for people, especially people that can't afford it, to have so many children!
But new housing developments can include greenery. Just as farmers benefit from setting aside some of their land each year and from creating wildlife corridors, residents of of housing estates would benefit from some of the land being set aside for community engagement with nature. When people are involved in the decision-making, they tend to have more respect for the decisions reached and show more care around the issues. They could even be offered incentives for maintaining green areas, and developers could be offered incentives for ensuring they leave some of the land completely undisturbed during the clearing and building process. There are ways, but we need to allow and encourage them to be explored, decided upon and followed through.
People have got to live somewhere. Houses have got to be built somewhere. Immigration is at 500,000 a year net. That is 200,000 house to be built every year just to stand still and not tackle the back-log.
@Terence Smith and they wonder what causes colony collapse in bees, its definately crop sprays that have caused this although companies still wont admit it, Eat clean, grow your own, uses nematodes for pest control, no one was ill during the allotment years gone by.
If only humans can be the one that go byebye first, we are the main cause of wanton destruction of the planet and all its inhabitants. Logic and justice dictate we cull the ones causing the problem.
Why have you used an image of an African Pygmy Hedgehog in the graphic instead of a native wild European hog? APGs don't live wild here, not even as an introduced species as they don't hibernate and can't survive the winter because of lack of food. You've basically illustrated this important story with a picture on an exotic pet.
Maybe it's too many of the wrong people breeding. If the west was ilimidated less carbon would be used. I don't K of the exact figures but they're interesting comparing an American household carbon footprint to that of a village in the 3rd world. I'll take your argument more serious when we stop wasting 30% of our food
And the consumption of land-intensive meat production has gone through the roof. And when meat uses 16 times more land to produce calories than its no wonder we are running out of land. ourworldindata.org/agricultural-land-by-global-diets
@@michaelrch bullshit..... Most of our farmland is ONLY suitable for rough grazing due to climate and geography and simply could not produce edible crops, plus vast quantities of waste from crops for human consumption are used for animal feed, so really, cutting out meat production does NOTHING to increase food production from a set amount of land
Paul Marchant SOME livestock is grown on rough land, but much of it isn't. I am not talking about putting crops on hillsides. I am talking about putting forests there. The numbers are such that we only need to find about 10% more arable land to replace all the calories and protein that we currently get from livestock. That's how wasteful livestock farming is with land and water. ourworldindata.org/agricultural-land-by-global-diets Your argument about how waste food goes to livestock is a distraction given how small a part that is of their feed and the vast amount of land that is dedicated to growing crops that feed animals. Like the thousands of sq kms of land that has been cleared of forests across Europe in the past and that is now being cleared in the rainforests of South America, Africa and Indonesia.
Agree with the comments about housing developments. Should be part of national planning policy that new developments incorporate wildlife corridors and use native planting in the landscaped sections - it would also be cheaper and easier to maintain.
Same here in Ireland. Birds like the Curlew are on the brink of extinction, they went from 20,000 breeding pairs to 128 (2018 numbers) during 40yrs of intensified agriculture. Most ground nesting bird numbers have collapsed, some already extinct. 3 species of bee extinct in the last few years and were losing almost 3% of the remainder annually. Most birds of prey were almost wiped out although due to extensive conservation efforts, some are recovering slowly. Doesn't stop farmers poisoning them though. If this keeps up, in 3oyrs, it will be nothing but green rye grass, cows and people. Very little else can survive
The UK human population has been allowed to explode via immigration. The UK needs to stop immigration, not just from the EU, but from everywhere. Job creation, housing, and road construction destroys wildlife habitat.
If anyone sees a hedgehog on the road, stop and move it. Dont ride past or even over it! It's a shame they are all getting squashed. I always am aware when driving, especially at night and on country lanes. Slow down, and look out for these lovely animals.
You may think we normal people can't do much to help turn this around. And to an extent you're right. Other than reducing electricity use, recycling and driving less what else can we do? Well you can plant trees! My back garden is converted into a tree nursery. I have grown hundreds of trees including 6 endangered species (including the native Arran whitebeam). You don't exactly have to plant endangered trees. Just any tree and lots of them! It's so easy to do and it frustrates me that hardly anyone else does it! It's so easy to grab a handful of seeds for free in the autumn and sow them in some soil ready to germinate in the spring. They basically look after themselves! After a few years of care and potting them up you're ready to plant them out during the winter. Somewhere wild or green. Your local park, your own garden, down the local canal or nature reserve. That's what I do! How many of you can say you've grown a tree from seed, raised it despite having your own busy career and finally planted it out for the local wildlife?
95 percent decline in hedgehogs?! I'm a live in carer and out of the 5 clients I've looked after 4 of them had hedgehogs in their gardens, 2 in one garden and I saw one each in the other 3. All these birds which have been apparently wiped out in the UK migrate huge distances.
As a professional gardener I can tell you older people have much more environmentally friendly gardens. I don't like dealing with younger customers as their disregard for the environment in pursuit of a 'maintenance free' garden sends me into a heavy depression. When your clients pass their houses will be sold and their gardens will be turned into stone and grass, imagine the millions of households this is happening to and you can quantify the problem is serious
@@letitgrow5060 I salute you sir for what you've said, absolutely spot on assessment, the old blokes even have fruit trees in their gardens. Free food! Everybody wants easy maintenance and if they have a tree they want it to be green all year.
@Terence Smith You realise that Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation. It's completely unsustainable. You raise a good point but there's far better solutions, one way to combat the negative impacts of pesticides on wildlife are: to implement organic practices for your own lawn and garden, and to support organic agriculture, rather than on conventional agriculture, which relies on pesticide use. Another way would be for farmers to adopt the “feed-the-soil” approach. See link: beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2013/11/study-sheds-light-on-soil-microbes-as-key-to-ecosystem-health/
. Loss of habitat, Roads and motor ways .over development, new housing estates every where, Not enough native plants in gardens. To many NON native plants still being sold in garden centres, Wood fencing without holes, not enough hedge rows, concrete or stoned gardens, gardens too tidy, Play area's with no trees, slug pellets, weed killers, sewage and or water outlets .Plastics, Supermarket food wrapping. Old batteries berried in land fill leaking. Landfill gases. I could go on. I think we are all guilty.
There was a hedgehog in my garden 2 weeks ago in south London, who do I need to talk to to track this girl/guy down so it can be saved? I did google it but it got complicated
Put out water and dried mealworms every night at dusk. We've done it for years. Our record is 5 hedgehogs at the same time. We're down to one this year. We might get more but we don't stay up all night to watch. We live in the middle of a town with old Victorian houses with big gardens near us. If you've got a big garden then build it a "home". Make sure it's got a way to get in and out of your garden. Cut holes in fences if possible so it can access next doors garden as well. Males travel vast distances looking for young ladies!
@@kevinallsop5788 This is great advice (I own a hedgehog and am pretty obsessed with wild ones). Just to add that any decent cat food does the trick too (I use Iams chicken biscuits for my African Pygmy) if people don't feel comfortable with the worms. Some people also advocate plain boiled chicken, but our guy isn't too interested. Live in a flat currently so no garden, but when I do have one I'll be looking to make it hog friendly :)
Is it just me that think this is a population issue? 12 million more people!? Surely that’s the problem! Less people, means less food, means less intensive farming, means less land for agriculture and more land for wildlife.
Overpopulation something’s got to give, even the rainforest is being destroyed. The smile on her face when he said stop eating meat tells me all I need to know.
How many of our song birds are killed by hunters on their migration paths. The Spanish kill migrating birds by putting glue on tree branches where the bird's perch to rest.
I shoot and eat wood pigeon and pheasants I don't know anybody who go's out of their way to shoot song birds that's nonsense in fact farmers don't like it they don't like people killing off to many rabbits either.
@@odinbiflindi I am not making this up. I suggest you Google "who uses glue traps to kill song birds" . The traps are widely used across Europe, with Cyprus being the worst offender, reportedly killing millions each year.
I know of glue traps and sweetcorn on string and lots of other nasty practices I'm not saying they don't happen far from it, But here in Ireland hunting on private land is regulated you just can't walk onto a farmers patch with a rifle and not expect some shotgun shot heading your way. I genuinely have never seen or heard of anyone here shooting songbirds even shooting foxes is sketchy I'm not saying it doesn't happen but it's generally frowned upon.
MAKING everything urgent over the top etc is not helpful exposing everyone to the knowledge would lead them to act properly farmers being the leaders in this In the Old days the land was left fallow every seven years this should be resurrected
Feeding people is the first priority. We live in a time when famine is not part of our experience. Make no mistake we are never far away from starvation. There is only about a weeks food supply in the U.K. at any one time. A large volcanic eruption for example would lead to failed harvests. It would be an act of folly to have policies reducing food production while taking in hundreds of thousands of immigrants every year. Increased co2 is good for food production that’s why it’s pumped into greenhouses
We need policies that allow and encourage farmers like the one featured here to support biodiversity. Look at the policies of the parties you're voting for. This is so deeply important if you have kids or grandkids.
NZ is even worse where we are dropping tonnes of 1080 poison (banned in almost all other countries - including the UK after the Smarden affair in Kent) over a million hectares and even into the public water supply of our biggest city - Auckland - so no surprises about the highest rate of bowel cancer and other diseases.
Yes agricultural chemicals have a huge effect but More and more people coming to live in the UK require more houses, roads, infrastructure, amenities, and more intensive agriculture to support their unsustainable numbers. But then logic isn't strong with the "open borders" green movement is it. Welcome to the concreated over island, formally known as "a green and pleasant land". It's not as if the rest of the planet hasn't got developable space or the ability to use birth control to balance human numbers, who are exploding everywhere but here.
I do go shooting occasional - shooting vermin, pigeons and corvids when necessary. When you get camouflaged up and sit still in a hedge row - it's surprising what animals come out after 30 minutes. However, when they see someone or dogs 1/2 mile away they run or fly off and hide again. I think a lot of the reduction in animal numbers is due to the constant disturbance robbing them of valuable feeding time. Don't forget most animals are on the edge of survival most of the time anyway - the slightest upset puts them over the line. We are accessing the countryside more and more with footpaths, building development, roads etc etc. It all has a knock on effect.
Are you joking it's already 90% gone... For money.. Where are the natural ponds full of frogs and newts, where ere the fresh streems with bullheads and trout +? 99% GONE 30 YEARS
Total nonsense isn't the UK comprised of 3 or 4 countries depending on your take on Northern Ireland. This is a devolved issues and not regulated by the UK government. English panel with English guests. Shame on channel 4 for such pro English bias on such a serious issue.
Finally the damage agriculture has done is noted and that means real action can take place...it really is the culprit and government have turned an blind eye for too long..its not too late we simply need to reinstate the natural heritage green every square metre and that includes the city...
Yup your right..... I'm not planting anything on my farm this autumn..... I'll tell my friends to do the same, it's gonna be wonderful, but of course, your food doesn't come from us horrible fucking farmers does it? You get yours from Tesco's. I'll just spend the winter shooting everything that moves, we do that as well, don't we?
@hater gater if the UK border closed there would be sanctions against us from all our trading partners. Buy locally as much as possible, it takes more effort to go to your local farm to buy veg and eggs but it dose tasty better and if that's not a easy reason to do a little more leg work I don't know what is.
I worked for a building company years ago, they conducted a Newt trapping study, costing thousands, digging buckets in the ground, putting up fences. When these so called experts came out they never found 1 newt in the buckets, wearing their fancy shoes and suits, they couldn't even be bothered to bend there backs. I noticed that condensation was building on the outside of these buckets, and the newts were down the side, loving the moisture. I knew more about those newts behaviour just being interested in nature, than those so called university educated experts, in about 5 minutes of actually opening my eyes.
Usual middle-class bullshit ... "we should all make healthier choices when we shop ...". This is all very well for the people who can afford to make those choices and don't have to survive on food banks. Get real! Constantly the emphasis is on the individual to make good choices ... it's the responsibility of governments and companies to stop offering the bad choices. When sugar drinks were available in schools, kids got fat. It didn't matter how much they were told the drinks were a problem; they just kept drinking, because it tastes nice. Take away the availability and kids stop getting fat. "Organic" shouldn't be the expensive option, it should be the only option. If you have a cheap alternative produced unsustainably, there will always be a lot of people who need to save money and will go for that alternative. And there needs to be tighter controls on "outsourcing the problem": Food manufacturers buying ingredients from countries where environmental controls are more lax and produce is consequently cheaper. "Fair trade" should be the rule, rather than the exception. And as for "I've never seen a hedgehog" ... there are kids in UK inner cities who've never seen cows.
Could it be a case of the ones that are thriving are at the ones that are declinings expense , predation of one species on an other is never mentioned , but blame the farmers with your mouths full as usual .
Some. But it's mostly habitat loss. We have deforested and dewilded huge areas of the countryside for farming and development. Much of the farmland is for livestock because it requires 16 times more land to produce calories of food than arable crops. As we eat more meat, we put more land to farming and clear out natural ecosystems as we go. Plus a warming climate is destabilising many ecosystems with too much water in some places and not enough in others, and fires, and invasive species. Etc etc So yes, we have to be much more careful what we put on the land but if we leave no space for nature, nature will die.
The former certainly, the latter very doubtful. GMOs are designed to sell more pesticides by making the crop resistant to damage by the chemicals. Ironically global warming will bring really dangerous, disease carrying, insects to our shores but our natural defenders, the birds and bats will not be here to protect us., we will have killed them all off.
mmmoroi 3G and 4G without a doubt are affecting wildlife. 5G is going to be catastrophic. Electrosmog is affecting all animals on this planet, human or otherwise, to varying degrees. There is evidence of cows dying because of the effects of Electric Magnetic Fields - radiation - being emitted by the mobile towers. Everyone wonders why bees are dying, whales keep beaching hundreds of miles off migratory routes, birds likewise, autism on the increase, cancers on the increase, miscarriages, infertility, birth defects, depression, suicide... the list is endless and the evidence is solid but UK in particular seems to fob it off as mumbo jumbo. The number of people suffering from Electrical Hyper Sensitivity is very real and also fobbed off by technophiles as mumbo jumbo.
It would be easier to preserve wildlife and habitat in Britain if our government didn't allow several hundred thousand foreigners to settle here each year, thereby requiring the paving over of large tracts of our once beautiful country to accommodate them all.
We can all help to improve this situation by eating a plant based diet, organic where possible. It's a winner for the environment, health and the animals.
Tim Stewart Organic is a bit like electric cars , if every farmer changed to organic even over a five year period there would not be anywhere near enough food to feed the worlds population , as with electric vehicles , where is is the electric coming from to power them , and don’t say renewables for that is a non starter , sooner or later the world is going to have to go nuclear , there is no such thing as fully clean energy , wind and biomas are at the end of the day just as if not more polluting than burning fossil fuels .
Herbivore_club Indeed. Some ammo against meat production and it's wasteful of land. ourworldindata.org/agricultural-land-by-global-diets If you do the sums, it comes out that livestock farming using 16 times more land per calorie and 6 times more per g of protein. No wonder the rainforests are on fire, let alone the loss of wildlife in the UK.
Explain please? Glyphosate starves plants to death by switching off photosynthesis. It ain't poison..... Channel four news has been infiltrated and overrun by the looney left
@@odinbiflindi no it isn't.....and it's not even toxic. How many of our crop protection products do you think are actually a poison? I guarantee that you have more toxic products under your sink and put into your drinking water by the water companies. We are NOT poisoning our land or the environment. This is simply political
@Terence Smith Been there ,done that for 80 years ,to blame global warming is tosh ,as to climate change ,well, in the past 80 some years I have noticed that the WEATHER does tend to vary at times,
@Terence Smith At last, I couldn't agree with you more. I had a smile RE the insects on windscreen, as I am now living in Bonnie Scotland I can assure you that there is no shortage up here. Regards.
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Forty years ago I could walk my dog along the canal and expect to see kingfishers, water voles and grass snakes. The surface of the water would be covered with pond skaters and whirligig beetles. All these species are now gone from this area. It's heart breaking to see the damage we have done. I only hope it's not too late to turn things around.
Same here, the river we used to play in as kids had so many water voles and a good few grass snakes, now theres none. I dread to think what the future holds.
YEEp! There's too many Chinese students
I could see frogs and small species along the river bank thirty years ago, they are all gone now, so heart breaking and sad. We should do something to rectify this situation.
Consider: will remaining in the EU lead to UK species extinction? th-cam.com/video/DFHkNEpNUg0/w-d-xo.html
Spooner McFunky same I have a canal where I live in Britain we still have damsel flies and king fishers but I’ve never seen a grass snake or an adder I’ve seen herons but not in my area and I’ve never ever seen a bittern!
Down with Boris Johnson he stated no ban to fox hunting and we need more woodland meadows and heaths for our wildlife!
when i was a kid I used to lay down in a field during the summer and listen to the skylark singing away and fall asleep, we need to help the wild life
Try closing the borders to reduce immigration, that way we wouldn't have to build more houses on the green land. We wouldn't need to expand farms to feed the out of control rising population. There wouldn't be as many cars on the road polluting the atmosphere. How many more people can we allow onto our small island at a rate of half a million a year?
@@keithlmj I don't think immigration is the problem. I think capitalism and the desire for exponential economic growth is the problem.
@@keithlmj that is the most closed minded idiotic answer to a global problem I have ever heard. The mass production of meat is directly linked to climate change which in turn is directly linked to mass migration
@@ballardfrogman Yet another closed-minded idiotic answer to the global problem. The earth has been warming up and cooling down for millions of years and it will continue to do so In 1989 they said the earth would be flooding in 11 years. You have been brainwashed by the elite who are just trying to make even more money and you have fallen for it
@@dewexdewex I'm sorry but political ideology has nothing to do with it. At the end of the day mass immigration paired with a higher birth rate as a result of that means more houses are needed, more offices, more hospitals, more schools, roads, more industry.
The plain fact is the bigger the population gets the more development you need. It has nothing to do with capitalism. Look at China for example. A communist country, with the largest urban sprawl, the fastest development and the most rapidly increasing population in the world. That has devastated the Chinese landscape. Take it from someone who grows endangered trees. Most of my endangered trees come from China. And that's just one category. Think of other plants, mammals birds and fish etc. Mass extinction is being driven by human demand. Not through capitalism. Leave your woeful politicisation out of this matter please. This is coming from someone who's an active conservationist.
I can recall driving around in the late 80's and 90's I had to clean the windscreen every day (insects) . No longer.
@Malcolm R Monaghan Nope. When we were kids in the 1970s I can remember the license plate on the family car, being BLACK with insects after a few hours driving. Not any more
@@eamoc where are all the butterflies? When I was young, clouds of butterflies would take to the air if you walked across a farm field in the summer months.
My dad had to wash his windscreen, head lights & number plate about every week, to remove the dead insects. Now I wash the car whenever Sahara sand gets deposited on it.
YEp! There's too many Chinese students
Well done Channel 4.
This was b*llshit . They blew right pass the massive issue of animal agriculture.
The agricultural system is a part of the lie that sustains the status quo. We can buy ridiculously cheap food and clothing, because manufacturers compromise our environment to make it so. People don't choose the cheapest products because they agree with the way they are made, they choose the cheapest product because their wages are low and they can't see the cost of low priced goods. When we start fixing the environment with regulations we'll also have to fix people's wages or life will become unaffordable for a large number of people.
Put a 500 percent tax on all food. and force closing of all restaraunts.
@Malcolm R Monaghan Not everybody has the time or money to be able to do that. Stop blaming the poor and encourage the 100 companies causing 71% of global emissions to face the music.
@Malcolm R Monaghan it's not about blaming others, it's about sustaining the illusion that we are all lords when in fact we are peasants. We get a flavour of "the good life" at knock down prices with massive cost to the world so we don't go out of the street and demonstrate against the chasm of inequality which is growing around us. Sure we could all eat turnips and cover ourselves with jute bags, but by purchasing faux luxury we can feel like we're part of the same world as CEOs, bankers and the like and this helps them avoid the guillotine.
It's animal agriculture that's destroying the environment . The price of meat is artificially cheap because of subsidies . Did you know that people spend more money on McDonalds than any other form of entertainment ? That's British beef supplemented with Brazilian soy . Where do you think all of those cows live ? The ones I see in the fields take up a lot more space than I do . What a waste . Id like that space back for nature .
House development, roads, roads everywhere...and agriculture... its been going on for decades
Luke Corradine
Plus as we eat more meat, the land use becomes more and more inefficient. Livestock farming uses 16x more land per calorie and 6x more land per g of protein. It's completely unsustainable.
We need to cut back on meat production and consumption to take the pressure off the land.
And it saves you money.
And it's good for you.
And the trees and wetlands that can return are huge carbon sinks.
Win win win win
We have 900 new homes being built on farm land, shocking animals being pushed out to smaller over populated areas.
@@michaelrch Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962 identified uncategorically what agriculture was responsible for. And yet we are creating our own Silent Spring in 2019. How has this been allowed to happen? Everywhere I look, landscapers are digging up more driveways to pave over, And the quantity, and quality, of housing going up in my area (none of it low cost or sustainable or affordable). Trees constantly coming down whilst pollution from cars and industry increase. And electrosmog seeps into every aspect of daily life with 5G on the horizon and the sheer number of masts that will entail. There's no winning to be had here.
Hansie's Ma
My top 3 for why.
1 Neoliberal economics
2 Political corruption
3 Massive misinformation campaigns by industry, especially the fossil fuel industry
And a rapidly growing population I guess. But that's not easy to actually change short of a gigantic aid and education to the women of developing nations...
@@michaelrch ok so neoliberal economics being driven by capitalism? That's why UK is worse than the continent then.
And where does all the agriculture go? Feeding the damn humans of course. If you want to blame something, blame humans. Stop shitting out more and more kids. If we can't really handle the current extinction with just 7 billion people, think about what it'd do with 10 billion humans.
The poor old hedgehog is a victim of road traffic. Travel down many country roads are they are littered with the dead bodies of squashed hedgehogs. The A47 is a depressing road to drive, not only are there dead hedgehogs and other small animals, but the bodies of foxes, badgers and deer. It is horrible to think of the pain and suffering these poor creatures experienced just before they died. Roads need more nature crossing points to save these animals. I often wonder if drivers would pay more attention to hedgehogs, if running over one required fitting a replacement tyre, shame the hedgehog has not evolved sharper pickles.
That's so sad! I agree that more nature crossings could help reduce the carnage. Would it be an expensive exercise?
In "A Prickly Affair" by Hugh Warwick, I remember a chapter looking at what was killing hedgehogs.
Turns out that badgers don't kill many hedgehogs in areas with low traffic because a hedgehog is a tough meal to get to. But in areas with high traffic badgers acquire a taste for the roadkill hedgehog and then will actively seek living hedgehogs knowing how tasty they are.
Basically the squashed hogs by car start a runaway decline as it makes badgers realise it's a meal worth spending time on. Data was pretty irrefutable. I would support more crossings, but also more hedges in farming (improvements in farming have enabled larger fields without the need for as many hedges) as well as making gaps in fences between gardens so hogs can roam :) (they have a surprisingly large roaming area).
Also although you might hurt for sharper spikes, they wouldn't be ideal. The spikes would be better for protection, but the spikes are also currently used as shock absorbers for the clumsy animals, which can fall well over a meter without injury (same source). Also it's not uncommon for hedgehogs to injure themselves by poking themselves in the eye with their quills :D,
They are oddly clumsy but very durable little creatures, and have been around for millions of years. Although their decline in the UK is sad and partially human inflicted, they are also pests in NZ where they were introduced by man and have no predators (they also have no flees in NZ, as hedgehog flees are species specific and the first ones introduced didn't have any). So man giveth, and man taketh away.
@@liamhalliday8437 Thanks for sharing info about the badgers, that was very interesting.
I have a pet hedgehog, they are The Cutest. And yes, it's not uncommon that he'll poke himself. Much less often, but on occasion quills will come out in such a way that if I didn't trim the quill it would cut him.
@THE ENLIGHTENED ONE I know how difficult it can be to miss animal that wait until you have almost passed them, before they dive across the car's path under the head lights beam. I wonder if down lights fitted to cars would discourage this behaviour.
I think a few more tunnels under and across the roads would provide a safe wildlife pathway. My comment about hedgehogs evolving steel sharp pickles was not to be taken seriously. I simply wanted to provide drivers with an added incentive to avoid them and money and damage to the car is a great incentive. Interestingly there are reports that hedgehog behaviour has evolved. Hedgehogs now run from cars rather than curl into a defensive ball.
I have long advocated fitting active street lights fitted with radar sensors, that switch on as road vehicles and pedestrians approach. These provide a ribbon of light that track road traffic. Such systems save money, provide darker sky's and may give wildlife a warning of approaching danger. I believe at least one country is trialling such a system.
Unfortunately during the spring and autumn months, rabbits tend to sleep in the middle of the roads, warming themselves on the heat stored in the black road surface. It is also true of domestic cats who hunt by the road side.
The increased human population in the UK is to blame for the loss of wildlife. Stop immigration
Animal agriculture is largely to blame. If individuals shifted towards a plant based diet there is there potential to reduce the land needed to for agriculture as whole and we'd be able to give back more to nature. We rely too heavily on meat and dairy which are very inefficient ways gaining our food requirements. The public needs to be encouraged to change its eating patterns.
Look at the average back garden,you'll see a patch of grass&a barbecue in one corner,&maybe a few bedding plants.The habitat has gone,people are lazy when it comes to gardening,&there are far too many humans.
I'm sure population growth and building housing on greenbelt countryside won't affect the British wildlife.
Well done Channel 4!
This is actually so sad, and people my age (born 2006) see this as normal. We dont realise how much wildlife we have, well... had
Yup Britian is really a shithole and I'm 13 and i find it boring how i rarely see foxes and hedgehogs and when i do i get gasped by it. I want to move to other countries with better wildlife.
@@KnownasNA fr man I’m 18 just turned n I look at Industrial civilisation I been born into n I think wats the point in any of it seriously gettin a job havin kids any of it wats the point if my kids live on a concrete covered Earth
Really devastating 😢
Seemed they missed the importance of the statement........ " There are 12 million more to feed"............... Overpopulation in an industrial society is the core problem. Depopulation WILL occur.... it only depends on HOW. Will we do it with humane and careful diligence, or will we allow nature to pick her agenda, which we will certainly NOT like at all.
Thank You Kim Weaver, that was beautifully stated and I truly hope Channel 4 News reads this and I also truly hope all the people in the comment section here read this statement of yours. As what you said about Mother Nature, Kim, is so very correct and we absolutely must take heed to the wisdom in comments such as these. The outcome of neglecting our beautiful Planet will certainly spell 'DOOM' and as you've stated in your comment we most assuredly will "NOT" like Nature's agenda!
Such wisdom you have, Kim is very hard to come by these days. Please pass your knowledge and humanity on, for the sake of us all. Thank You.
yes and everyone thinks that no animal agriculture will clear it all up. What the number one issue is that the dependence on fossil fuels to make pesticides, fertilizers, and manpower to keep up with non stop population growth... what can go wrong with all this?
I wish it’s the human population that’s declining, not wildlife.
Why is there a picture of an African Pygmy hedgehog in the thumbnail? Should be a Eurasian hedgehog, which are native to the UK, instead of the African Pygmy hedgehog which obviously isn't. I don't mean to be that guy, but...
This sort of thing infuriates me - I've commented too. The animal in the graphic is a victim of the exotic pet trade not a wild UK mammal that is under threat.
@@HelenThomas68 As the owner of an African Pygmy hedgehog, I'm not sure I'd class him as a victim.
I got him from a breeder in Essex, so he was born in captivity and got used to people from the first thing. He's pretty domesticated as a result and very well cared and provided for.
Clearly not an endangered native species, either way :)
It's 'cos it's cute, get that childish reaction from the uneducated among us who don't notice political indoctrination when it hits them
Liam Halliday: Originally they had a unicorn in the thumbnail, but they thought it too ‘over the top’.
They probably couldn't find one
Great and intelligent work from the channel 4 news team and mr Jon Snow in particular, always ahead in tackling sensitive issues, in this case the catastrophic loss of animal species due to agricultural practices and climate change. This is the England that I respect. Thank you and keep up the good work channel 4. Greetings from an italian in Dublin (which used to live in the uk)
Ps. JC4PM
@@blackphilip8936 oh dear..
Black Philip
Science that you don't like the consequences of is still science.
Climate.nasa.gov/causes
No, this is simply politics, channel four is known for it, this is about trying to make us farmers jump through even more hoops after we leave the EU, it's based on nonsense. We farm here with close RSPB involvement, and surprised them in the fact that the fields farmed OUR way have a higher bird number and species count than where we followed their recommendations...... Didn't surprise me. We are not allowed by law to assist the hedgehog population, we could do this very quickly and cheaply by exterminating every single stinking badger that we see, but like I said..... Not allowed, so bye bye hedgehog....... Don't blame us farmers, we'd love to help
I'm sick of watching shows like this because the solution is so simple yet nothing is ever done. STOP making babies people! Take responsibility for your actions. Don't wait for someone to fix the problem for you because it's never going to happen. All of the world's problems would correct themselves if the planet had a max population of 4-5 billion. Pollution in the water and air, a warming planet, deforestation, habitat loss, lack of employment opportunities... Why is it necessary for people, especially people that can't afford it, to have so many children!
Ive not seen a sky lark for years
Sky Lark song was the soundtrack of summer holidays for me as a kid, I'd see so many, now I'm lucky if I see one a year.
Get out more.....
I do get out 4 hours per day scone head
Unfortunately you will only see them in national parks and nature reserves
The fact that so many new housing developments are happening near villages is another reason this is happening.
But new housing developments can include greenery. Just as farmers benefit from setting aside some of their land each year and from creating wildlife corridors, residents of of housing estates would benefit from some of the land being set aside for community engagement with nature. When people are involved in the decision-making, they tend to have more respect for the decisions reached and show more care around the issues. They could even be offered incentives for maintaining green areas, and developers could be offered incentives for ensuring they leave some of the land completely undisturbed during the clearing and building process.
There are ways, but we need to allow and encourage them to be explored, decided upon and followed through.
How we house ourselves and our ever expanding numbers needs a lot more attention.
Plant forests NOT houses, overpopulated, human greed has done alot of this
People have got to live somewhere. Houses have got to be built somewhere. Immigration is at 500,000 a year net. That is 200,000 house to be built every year just to stand still and not tackle the back-log.
@Terence Smith and they wonder what causes colony collapse in bees, its definately crop sprays that have caused this although companies still wont admit it, Eat clean, grow your own, uses nematodes for pest control, no one was ill during the allotment years gone by.
Bye insects, bye birds, bye fish, ... bye humans
Black Philip that is your conclusion apparently
If only humans can be the one that go byebye first, we are the main cause of wanton destruction of the planet and all its inhabitants. Logic and justice dictate we cull the ones causing the problem.
Why have you used an image of an African Pygmy Hedgehog in the graphic instead of a native wild European hog? APGs don't live wild here, not even as an introduced species as they don't hibernate and can't survive the winter because of lack of food. You've basically illustrated this important story with a picture on an exotic pet.
@@tigerinatan Exactly, that's my point.
Just too many people breeding in the world is the real problem but nobody is talking about that
zen12330 Spot on !
Maybe it's too many of the wrong people breeding. If the west was ilimidated less carbon would be used. I don't K of the exact figures but they're interesting comparing an American household carbon footprint to that of a village in the 3rd world. I'll take your argument more serious when we stop wasting 30% of our food
U.k need to bring back wolves link's bear use garding dogs likes alabi akbash Kafka's dogs use bear sprey.
There are no.villages left.its all.merging.into.big towns .
Population increase in 50 years 8%. Food wastage 40%.
The population has increased by 16.5% in 50 years. By over 10,000,000
And the consumption of land-intensive meat production has gone through the roof.
And when meat uses 16 times more land to produce calories than its no wonder we are running out of land.
ourworldindata.org/agricultural-land-by-global-diets
@@michaelrch bullshit..... Most of our farmland is ONLY suitable for rough grazing due to climate and geography and simply could not produce edible crops, plus vast quantities of waste from crops for human consumption are used for animal feed, so really, cutting out meat production does NOTHING to increase food production from a set amount of land
Food wasting is a sin.
Paul Marchant
SOME livestock is grown on rough land, but much of it isn't.
I am not talking about putting crops on hillsides. I am talking about putting forests there.
The numbers are such that we only need to find about 10% more arable land to replace all the calories and protein that we currently get from livestock. That's how wasteful livestock farming is with land and water.
ourworldindata.org/agricultural-land-by-global-diets
Your argument about how waste food goes to livestock is a distraction given how small a part that is of their feed and the vast amount of land that is dedicated to growing crops that feed animals. Like the thousands of sq kms of land that has been cleared of forests across Europe in the past and that is now being cleared in the rainforests of South America, Africa and Indonesia.
Agree with the comments about housing developments. Should be part of national planning policy that new developments incorporate wildlife corridors and use native planting in the landscaped sections - it would also be cheaper and easier to maintain.
Same here in Ireland. Birds like the Curlew are on the brink of extinction, they went from 20,000 breeding pairs to 128 (2018 numbers) during 40yrs of intensified agriculture. Most ground nesting bird numbers have collapsed, some already extinct. 3 species of bee extinct in the last few years and were losing almost 3% of the remainder annually. Most birds of prey were almost wiped out although due to extensive conservation efforts, some are recovering slowly. Doesn't stop farmers poisoning them though. If this keeps up, in 3oyrs, it will be nothing but green rye grass, cows and people. Very little else can survive
Doing my bit, feeding are hedgehog fattening him/she up for the hibernation.......snug cosy warm box plenty of meals worms sunflower seeds........
If you're a farmer you should farm nature too. Being a farmer doent just mean livestock imo
Horrifying : (
Come on UK - we can do So much better. How can we lead by example if we can't get our own house in order? Let's fix this!
Does this include the extinction of the white race too?
You don’t see many ladybirds these days and seen far fewer bees in recent years
Where i live in suffolk its all.open.fields woodland but.its going to have flats and shops and carparks on.it by next year .
There are too many humans,we have bred like unchecked rats,&it is at the expense of the environment.
Very informative documentary.
The UK human population has been allowed to explode via immigration. The UK needs to stop immigration, not just from the EU, but from everywhere.
Job creation, housing, and road construction destroys wildlife habitat.
I saw a hedgehog earlier
If anyone sees a hedgehog on the road, stop and move it. Dont ride past or even over it! It's a shame they are all getting squashed. I always am aware when driving, especially at night and on country lanes. Slow down, and look out for these lovely animals.
You may think we normal people can't do much to help turn this around. And to an extent you're right. Other than reducing electricity use, recycling and driving less what else can we do?
Well you can plant trees! My back garden is converted into a tree nursery. I have grown hundreds of trees including 6 endangered species (including the native Arran whitebeam). You don't exactly have to plant endangered trees. Just any tree and lots of them! It's so easy to do and it frustrates me that hardly anyone else does it!
It's so easy to grab a handful of seeds for free in the autumn and sow them in some soil ready to germinate in the spring. They basically look after themselves!
After a few years of care and potting them up you're ready to plant them out during the winter. Somewhere wild or green. Your local park, your own garden, down the local canal or nature reserve. That's what I do!
How many of you can say you've grown a tree from seed, raised it despite having your own busy career and finally planted it out for the local wildlife?
Restrict the number of humans born,it's the only solution.
UK wildlife then why is there a Pygmy Hedgehog on the thumb nail of the video they are from North Africa 🤔
95 percent decline in hedgehogs?! I'm a live in carer and out of the 5 clients I've looked after 4 of them had hedgehogs in their gardens, 2 in one garden and I saw one each in the other 3. All these birds which have been apparently wiped out in the UK migrate huge distances.
As a professional gardener I can tell you older people have much more environmentally friendly gardens. I don't like dealing with younger customers as their disregard for the environment in pursuit of a 'maintenance free' garden sends me into a heavy depression. When your clients pass their houses will be sold and their gardens will be turned into stone and grass, imagine the millions of households this is happening to and you can quantify the problem is serious
@@letitgrow5060 I salute you sir for what you've said, absolutely spot on assessment, the old blokes even have fruit trees in their gardens. Free food! Everybody wants easy maintenance and if they have a tree they want it to be green all year.
16.35 Eating meat is THE WORST thing we can be doing to the environment! Who are these clowns?.... They're in denial!
@Terence Smith You realise that Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation. It's completely unsustainable.
You raise a good point but there's far better solutions, one way to combat the negative impacts of pesticides on wildlife are: to implement organic practices for your own lawn and garden, and to support organic agriculture, rather than on conventional agriculture, which relies on pesticide use.
Another way would be for farmers to adopt the “feed-the-soil” approach. See link:
beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2013/11/study-sheds-light-on-soil-microbes-as-key-to-ecosystem-health/
. Loss of habitat, Roads and motor ways .over development, new housing estates every where, Not enough native plants in gardens. To many NON native plants still being sold in garden centres, Wood fencing without holes, not enough hedge rows, concrete or stoned gardens, gardens too tidy, Play area's with no trees, slug pellets, weed killers, sewage and or water outlets .Plastics, Supermarket food wrapping. Old batteries berried in land fill leaking. Landfill gases. I could go on. I think we are all guilty.
Yep, but i dont think we are all guilty
There was a hedgehog in my garden 2 weeks ago in south London, who do I need to talk to to track this girl/guy down so it can be saved? I did google it but it got complicated
Build a simple small house for it to hibernate in. Now is the time of year when it needs shelter.
Black Philip thanks for your Irrelevant input
I have never seen one in the flesh in London would love to all i see are Foxes everywhere
Put out water and dried mealworms every night at dusk. We've done it for years. Our record is 5 hedgehogs at the same time. We're down to one this year. We might get more but we don't stay up all night to watch. We live in the middle of a town with old Victorian houses with big gardens near us. If you've got a big garden then build it a "home". Make sure it's got a way to get in and out of your garden. Cut holes in fences if possible so it can access next doors garden as well. Males travel vast distances looking for young ladies!
@@kevinallsop5788 This is great advice (I own a hedgehog and am pretty obsessed with wild ones). Just to add that any decent cat food does the trick too (I use Iams chicken biscuits for my African Pygmy) if people don't feel comfortable with the worms. Some people also advocate plain boiled chicken, but our guy isn't too interested.
Live in a flat currently so no garden, but when I do have one I'll be looking to make it hog friendly :)
Is it just me that think this is a population issue? 12 million more people!? Surely that’s the problem! Less people, means less food, means less intensive farming, means less land for agriculture and more land for wildlife.
British native humans are also becoming extinct on the British Isles.
Overpopulation something’s got to give, even the rainforest is being destroyed. The smile on her face when he said stop eating meat tells me all I need to know.
Shared and a little scared for bairns of all the beasties.
Well done English people for getting rid of Diversity in your ecosystem.
How many of our song birds are killed by hunters on their migration paths. The Spanish kill migrating birds by putting glue on tree branches where the bird's perch to rest.
I shoot and eat wood pigeon and pheasants I don't know anybody who go's out of their way to shoot song birds that's nonsense in fact farmers don't like it they don't like people killing off to many rabbits either.
@@odinbiflindi I am not making this up. I suggest you Google "who uses glue traps to kill song birds" . The traps are widely used across Europe, with Cyprus being the worst offender, reportedly killing millions each year.
I know of glue traps and sweetcorn on string and lots of other nasty practices I'm not saying they don't happen far from it, But here in Ireland hunting on private land is regulated you just can't walk onto a farmers patch with a rifle and not expect some shotgun shot heading your way. I genuinely have never seen or heard of anyone here shooting songbirds even shooting foxes is sketchy I'm not saying it doesn't happen but it's generally frowned upon.
I'm sceptical of any news from c4.
@Malcolm R Monaghan I'm pretty sure it's satire. My favourite characters Cathy Newman, she's such a dumbass 😂
but hey, ... your an idiot, so who cares?
MAKING everything urgent over the top etc is not helpful exposing everyone to the knowledge would lead them to act properly farmers being the leaders in this In the Old days the land was left fallow every seven years this should be resurrected
Feeding people is the first priority. We live in a time when famine is not part of our experience. Make no mistake we are never far away from starvation. There is only about a weeks food supply in the U.K. at any one time. A large volcanic eruption for example would lead to failed harvests. It would be an act of folly to have policies reducing food production while taking in hundreds of thousands of immigrants every year. Increased co2 is good for food production that’s why it’s pumped into greenhouses
We need policies that allow and encourage farmers like the one featured here to support biodiversity. Look at the policies of the parties you're voting for. This is so deeply important if you have kids or grandkids.
New Zealand! Ya feel me. 17:55 sausage roll / salmon and avocado break :p Kids, let's go!
Henry Downes watching from my farm in New Zealand, this is heatbreaking to see my homeland being devastated by greed & mis management ..
NZ is even worse where we are dropping tonnes of 1080 poison (banned in almost all other countries - including the UK after the Smarden affair in Kent) over a million hectares and even into the public water supply of our biggest city - Auckland - so no surprises about the highest rate of bowel cancer and other diseases.
Why cant we just have wildiife amd woodland with.out it being desrtroyed by.buildings and.housing complexes
That means stopping the population increase - stopping immigration - come out of the EU - BREXIT.
@Terence Smith The figure is actually nearer 500,000 a year. The official figures do not include illegals and over-stayers.
Yes agricultural chemicals have a huge effect but More and more people coming to live in the UK require more houses, roads, infrastructure, amenities, and more intensive agriculture to support their unsustainable numbers. But then logic isn't strong with the "open borders" green movement is it. Welcome to the concreated over island, formally known as "a green and pleasant land". It's not as if the rest of the planet hasn't got developable space or the ability to use birth control to balance human numbers, who are exploding everywhere but here.
I do go shooting occasional - shooting vermin, pigeons and corvids when necessary. When you get camouflaged up and sit still in a hedge row - it's surprising what animals come out after 30 minutes. However, when they see someone or dogs 1/2 mile away they run or fly off and hide again. I think a lot of the reduction in animal numbers is due to the constant disturbance robbing them of valuable feeding time. Don't forget most animals are on the edge of survival most of the time anyway - the slightest upset puts them over the line. We are accessing the countryside more and more with footpaths, building development, roads etc etc. It all has a knock on effect.
Pigeons and corvids do not need shooting; they're all beautiful.
Are you joking it's already 90% gone... For money.. Where are the natural ponds full of frogs and newts, where ere the fresh streems with bullheads and trout +? 99% GONE 30 YEARS
"Yes, keep consuming, keep guzzling meat, keep breeding, keep using resources. The farmers aren't at fault!" - all the awful horrible selfish farmers.
17:57 LOL!
Four badgers seen in one morning all dead by the roadside.
:(
Total nonsense isn't the UK comprised of 3 or 4 countries depending on your take on Northern Ireland. This is a devolved issues and not regulated by the UK government. English panel with English guests. Shame on channel 4 for such pro English bias on such a serious issue.
shame humans aren’t in that 40% tbh
Finally the damage agriculture has done is noted and that means real action can take place...it really is the culprit and government have turned an blind eye for too long..its not too late we simply need to reinstate the natural heritage green every square metre and that includes the city...
Yup your right..... I'm not planting anything on my farm this autumn..... I'll tell my friends to do the same, it's gonna be wonderful, but of course, your food doesn't come from us horrible fucking farmers does it? You get yours from Tesco's. I'll just spend the winter shooting everything that moves, we do that as well, don't we?
Discussion in a barn? Well that's new.
Agriculture/pollution is the issue not the climate changing,
The government needs to sort this.
@hater gater what border?
@hater gater if the UK border closed there would be sanctions against us from all our trading partners. Buy locally as much as possible, it takes more effort to go to your local farm to buy veg and eggs but it dose tasty better and if that's not a easy reason to do a little more leg work I don't know what is.
The kid lost me at his friends becoming vegetarian!...exactly what bird are they trying to save, the chicken!?
I worked for a building company years ago, they conducted a Newt trapping study, costing thousands, digging buckets in the ground, putting up fences. When these so called experts came out they never found 1 newt in the buckets, wearing their fancy shoes and suits, they couldn't even be bothered to bend there backs. I noticed that condensation was building on the outside of these buckets, and the newts were down the side, loving the moisture. I knew more about those newts behaviour just being interested in nature, than those so called university educated experts, in about 5 minutes of actually opening my eyes.
I was pissed as a newt once
Pesticides running into the ditches and brooks is killing newts mostly.
2:55 I bet pigeons and seagulls are up loads....
Usual middle-class bullshit ... "we should all make healthier choices when we shop ...". This is all very well for the people who can afford to make those choices and don't have to survive on food banks. Get real! Constantly the emphasis is on the individual to make good choices ... it's the responsibility of governments and companies to stop offering the bad choices.
When sugar drinks were available in schools, kids got fat. It didn't matter how much they were told the drinks were a problem; they just kept drinking, because it tastes nice. Take away the availability and kids stop getting fat.
"Organic" shouldn't be the expensive option, it should be the only option. If you have a cheap alternative produced unsustainably, there will always be a lot of people who need to save money and will go for that alternative.
And there needs to be tighter controls on "outsourcing the problem": Food manufacturers buying ingredients from countries where environmental controls are more lax and produce is consequently cheaper. "Fair trade" should be the rule, rather than the exception.
And as for "I've never seen a hedgehog" ... there are kids in UK inner cities who've never seen cows.
Could it be a case of the ones that are thriving are at the ones that are declinings expense , predation of one species on an other is never mentioned , but blame the farmers with your mouths full as usual .
It's the EU fault.
GMO and mobile mast must have something to do with this.
Monsanto chemicals
Some.
But it's mostly habitat loss.
We have deforested and dewilded huge areas of the countryside for farming and development. Much of the farmland is for livestock because it requires 16 times more land to produce calories of food than arable crops.
As we eat more meat, we put more land to farming and clear out natural ecosystems as we go.
Plus a warming climate is destabilising many ecosystems with too much water in some places and not enough in others, and fires, and invasive species. Etc etc
So yes, we have to be much more careful what we put on the land but if we leave no space for nature, nature will die.
The former certainly, the latter very doubtful. GMOs are designed to sell more pesticides by making the crop resistant to damage by the chemicals. Ironically global warming will bring really dangerous, disease carrying, insects to our shores but our natural defenders, the birds and bats will not be here to protect us., we will have killed them all off.
mmmoroi 3G and 4G without a doubt are affecting wildlife. 5G is going to be catastrophic. Electrosmog is affecting all animals on this planet, human or otherwise, to varying degrees. There is evidence of cows dying because of the effects of Electric Magnetic Fields - radiation - being emitted by the mobile towers. Everyone wonders why bees are dying, whales keep beaching hundreds of miles off migratory routes, birds likewise, autism on the increase, cancers on the increase, miscarriages, infertility, birth defects, depression, suicide... the list is endless and the evidence is solid but UK in particular seems to fob it off as mumbo jumbo. The number of people suffering from Electrical Hyper Sensitivity is very real and also fobbed off by technophiles as mumbo jumbo.
@@hansiesma16 This is just pure conspiracy theories. You need to cite some credible sources to back this up, otherwise its all just BS.
Permaculture type agriculture and food forests are probably the only way forward.
Also.housing devolpments to.many housing going up.
You have to stop doing these multiple original posts. It's just annoying.
@@garyreynolds5733
I can write as much as i like
Humans are the worst kinds of locusts
It would be easier to preserve wildlife and habitat in Britain if our government didn't allow several hundred thousand foreigners to settle here each year, thereby requiring the paving over of large tracts of our once beautiful country to accommodate them all.
If UK farmers loose theyre subsidies from the EU, problem will be solved smoothly.
What’s new the UK looks green and all that but I have always said that all it is really is like a neat increasingly sterile golf course.
Hear, Hear. A new way of looking at our systems, is overdue.
We can all help to improve this situation by eating a plant based diet, organic where possible. It's a winner for the environment, health and the animals.
Tim Stewart Organic is a bit like electric cars , if every farmer changed to organic even over a five year period there would not be anywhere near enough food to feed the worlds population , as with electric vehicles , where is is the electric coming from to power them , and don’t say renewables for that is a non starter , sooner or later the world is going to have to go nuclear , there is no such thing as fully clean energy , wind and biomas are at the end of the day just as if not more polluting than burning fossil fuels .
Immigration is not helping to preserve wildlife.
DEAR GOD FORGIVE US , AND HELP US !
Once again the Red Fox survives come to London they are everywhere the true survivor of Britain
Please, please before I even watch don't blame Brexit.
Imagine blaming arable on this 🙄
Herbivore_club
Indeed. Some ammo against meat production and it's wasteful of land.
ourworldindata.org/agricultural-land-by-global-diets
If you do the sums, it comes out that livestock farming using 16 times more land per calorie and 6 times more per g of protein.
No wonder the rainforests are on fire, let alone the loss of wildlife in the UK.
Domestic cats...
BACK ON THE RISE THANKS TO COVID 19
Glyphosate is what's killing off birds and insects.
Explain please? Glyphosate starves plants to death by switching off photosynthesis. It ain't poison..... Channel four news has been infiltrated and overrun by the looney left
Its carcinogenic for a start.... www.pan-uk.org/glyphosate/
@@odinbiflindi no it isn't.....and it's not even toxic. How many of our crop protection products do you think are actually a poison? I guarantee that you have more toxic products under your sink and put into your drinking water by the water companies. We are NOT poisoning our land or the environment. This is simply political
Paul are you on a spectrum? Or just really stupid?
The planet would be better off without us ..
its almost like we need a major legislative shift to change all this.. oh wait
Very sad indeed 😥😥😥😥
:( :( :( :(
Re the starlings, I really would love to know how they were counted and by whom. more doom and gloom.
@Terence Smith Been there ,done that for 80 years ,to blame global warming is tosh ,as to climate change ,well, in the past 80 some years I have noticed that the WEATHER does tend to vary at times,
@Terence Smith At last, I couldn't agree with you more. I had a smile RE the insects on windscreen, as I am now living in Bonnie Scotland I can assure you that there is no shortage up here. Regards.
first
Channel 4 soon to be extinct - more bull!