Golden Chainsaw award for state

I AGREE with the sentiments expressed by Roderick D O’Sullivan (Letters, May 31) that the poisoning of reintroduced eagles by errant farmers is an odious environmental crime and needs to stop.

By its very nature, modern agriculture to a large extent involves managing land in ways that conflict with the conservation of biodiversity and the healthy functioning of ecosystems. Hence we have the litany of agriculture-related, environmental problems mentioned in his letter. However, farmers are not the only sector of society responsible for habitat loss and creating environmental problems.

The Golden Chainsaw could be awarded to the Government for implementing its top three transport options of roads, roads and more roads, while the underused rail system is sidelined and left to decay.

Huge tracts of land have been devoured and replaced with impermeable, poisonous tarmac that creates the open sewers of modern hyper-consumerism. Habitats have been fragmented and biodiversity driven further to the edge in the process.

Every year, politicians and planners rezone thousands of acres of land for urban expansion, housing estates and megascale shopping centres wrapped with swathes of tarmac. This also devours vast amounts of land that was once semi-natural and contributing in some small way to biodiversity.

You also have the spectre of one-off housing turning the countryside into a snake-trailing, car-dependent, drawn-out yawn of suburbia. This all uses up vital habitat by converting natural groundcover into sterile, manicured gardens and as a consequence reduces biodiversity. What I am trying to say is the whole human project in its present form is in serious conflict with the natural world. Whether this is our “curse” or our final predicament is a debate for another day. The fact is we cannot continue turning our planet into a wasteland and destroying the very nature we are inextricably part of.

It must also be remembered that the agricultural landscape holds the greatest potential for conserving and improving wild biodiversity than any other form of landuse activity.

John Fitzgerald

Fahee

Kilmacow

Co Kilkenny