By now you’ve hopefully seen some of the promotion for our ‘Wake Up George’ campaign. We’re calling on the Chancellor, George Osborne, to wake up and use his Budget statement on 21 March to put the environment at the heart of the UK’s economic recovery.
We’re doing this because we’re concerned that recent public statements by the Chancellor are increasingly portraying the environment as a barrier to the UK’s economic recovery. In last November’s autumn economic statement, the Chancellor described hard-won legal protections for our most precious wildlife sites, as a “ridiculous cost on British business”.
We accept that the Chancellor needs to deliver economic growth and create jobs in the face of an enormous economic challenge. What we do not accept is that the environment is a barrier to success.
Instead of environmentally destructive and high carbon, we want sustainable growth that acknowledges the value of the natural world that sustains us. Instead of a Thames Estuary Airport that will destroy areas internationally acknowledged as important for wildlife and blow any chance we have of meeting our commitments to help avoid catastrophic climate change, we want the Chancellor to look to the London Gateway port development as an example of how infrastructure projects should be done.
Watch our short Wake Up George animation to see what things could be like if he takes a different view later this month. Then please step up for nature and e-mail the Chancellor to put the environment at the heart of the UK’s economic recovery.
If you’ve got an extra minute why not ask your friends to step up too by visiting www.rspb.org.uk/savingspecialplaces
If you’ve got an extra couple of minutes why not tweet your MP? If they’re on Twitter you can find them on Tweetminster. You can tweet what you like but we’ve prepared a couple if you just want to copy and paste:
Urge the Chancellor to put the environment at the heart of the UK’s economic recovery on 21 March #wakeupgeorge #budget2012 #RSPBsteppingup
Environment isn’t a barrier to growth. Urge Chancellor to put environment at heart of his Budget #wakeupgeorge #budget2012 #RSPBsteppingup
The environment underpins economic growth. Urge the Chancellor to remember that on 21 March #wakeupgeorge #budget2012 #RSPBsteppingup
Thanks for your support!