In which EU country are people most concerned about biodiversity loss in their own country? Greece
Do the people of Italy, Germany, France or the UK take global biodiversity loss the most seriously? Italy
What are the strongest reasons, according to the EU public, for protecting nature? A moral imperative
Which EU country has the highest proportion of its inhabitants claiming to make personal efforts to save biodiversity? Portugal
In which EU country is awareness of the Natura 2000 network the lowest? Italy (but second lowest is the UK).
Now this report is perhaps out of date, and relies on people being honest (and equally honest in different countries!) but it is an interesting snap-shot on what people say they think about nature. It's easy to believe that we are a nation of animal lovers but does that shine through these results? The UK is rarely a leading country on any of these measures - but quite often lagging behind.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Sooty, redkite - I agree
I think this result reflects the general rather parochial approach that most people in this country tend to have on so many matters, not just conservation. In my experience, the horizons of the average person (if there is such a person), tend to be somewhat more limited compared to that of many of our European neighbours. Our television screens and our newspaper head lines consistently give us the short view, (sometimes the very short view). In this day and age especially. Wisdom demands the long view.
P.S. congratulations Mark, on seeing the waxwings, at last, persistence pays off!
redkite
Very interesting Mark,i am as patriotic as the next person but think we need to recognise we are no better than other countries and in lots of cases we could learn from them to our advantage,something unfortunately we seem loath to do.