It was cold, dark, noisy and there were flashing Police lights all around me. I was loitering in a car park in east London usualy frequented by young men in expensive cars who don't take kindly to people staring at them. But today, that car park was full of people like me, politely shepherded by a small army of smiling, high-fiving Police Officers as we all waited amicably for the Paralympic torch to arrive. It was no wonder that when I got home I reached for some pain killers.
The average bathroom cabinet, if that's where you keep your stash of painkillers, quite often contains diclofenac; or used to. Laws have been changed in many countries and diclofenac is being dropped, not because it's harmful to humans. Quite the contrary. It's an effective anti-inflammatory. However, it causes liver failure in vultures and is one of the main reasons these amazing, if not cuddly, creatures have been dying at an alarming rate.
Saturday, September first is World Vulture Day. We should celebrate them. They played a starring role in the old Jungle Book movie and in real life, they clean carcasses of dead animals so fast, there's no danger of disease from the rotting corpse. That was before diclofenac entered the food chain. Not only is it an effective drug for humans, it's good for animals too, so domestic cattle, sheep and goats across Asia were also given it. When these animals died, vultures did what vultures do and ate the diclofenac impregnated corpse. It all sounds nasty and horrible, but not as horrible and nasty as the consequences of the loss of these carrion eaters.
Since vulture populations crashed, cases of rabies and other diseases have increased, as have packs of wild dogs and rats. They're taking advantage of the new sources of food previously cleaned away by vultures and it's resulted in their populations expanding. It's had a negative knock-on effect on people.
The RSPB has worked with others to find solutions to the problem and we've made progress. Alternative drugs have been identified. Vulture sanctuaries established with successful breeding programmes. We've increased awareness of the problem and secured lots of help across Asia. But it's not enough. We haven't saved the species yet.
More money is needed to fund this work and to fund all the work the RSPB does here in the UK and abroad. You'd expect me to say that wouldn't you. But we can all strive to do more. The decline of vultures was never an intention of the manufacturers of diclofenac. Nor is the scarcity of sand eels in the North Sea the aim of fishermen trying to make a living. Nor is the tidying of gardens and public spaces an evil conspiracy to rid London of sparrows or blackbirds. It just happens and eventually someone notices. Thankfully, the RSPB has noticed drops in kittiwakes, swifts, insects and river fish. While others argue for short-sighted action, such as giant airports or culls of cormorants, we're looking for real solutions to the root causes of the changes that are impacting on our lives.
Killing cormorants because they're taking a high proportion of the dwindling numbers of river fish after people polluted the rivers and over-fished the seas is not an answer. Increasing emissions by building bigger airports for more subsidised air travel is no way to address climate change that results in extremes of weather, higher sea-levels and poor food growing seasons.
Take a Paralympic torch and shine light on many of our modern day issues. Be inspired by the human spirit exhibited in the Olympic venues over the next few days and you'll soon realise that we can all do a bit more; push ourselves that bit further; aim higher and overcome the false assertions that threaten to rob us, and future generations, of our natural inheritance.