We’ve been told so many times about the terrible damage we’ve caused, and are causing, to this wonderful world of ours, that we’ve almost become immune to it, reports of the pollution of the atmosphere, the destruction of the rain forests, the wiping out of whole species of animals and the denuding of the oceans. We mustn’t though because the problems are getting worse and as many scientists repeatedly tell us, the Earth is slowly dying. That is not scaremongering, it is not hyperbole but the simple truth.

A new book, “Ocean of Life” by Callum Roberts, confirms the dreadful damage wreaked upon our oceans and reveals that in the last 30 years mankind has caused more damage to the oceans and seas than in all  preceding time. It draws our attention to some terrible statistics such as the fact that we have already lost 75% of the oceans’ larger creatures like whales, sharks, dolphins and turtles. It reveals the irreversible damage caused by pollution to our coral reefs and paints a bleak picture of a time when there will be no living reefs left.

We know that we have virtually wiped out once plentiful fish such as cod and tuna but still we fish like insatiable monsters who can only rest when there is nothing left to destroy. Why is it that we can be so clever and so imaginative, inventing  cures for previously untreatable illnesses, design aeroplanes that can fly half way around the world without refuelling and construct buildings that reach up into the clouds, but when it comes to something as simple as preserving the world around us we behave like deranged Neanderthals?

Maybe it’s too late to do something about it, maybe we are doomed but I don’t think so. It is up to us to change our way of life and our habits, change what we eat and change our fuel to name but a few vital measures. It is up to us to lobby our politicians and tell the captains of industry how concerned we are about our impact upon our planet.

We are capable of change, of that there is no doubt, but what is required is the desire and the will to change. We can give our help to organisations like the World Wildlife Fund (www.wwf.org.uk) to Greenpeace (www.greenpeace.org.uk) and to other organisations like them. If we do nothing the legacy we leave to our children and our children’s children will be a permanent stain upon our generation and upon those before us. We will be remembered as the generation who took and took without giving back, the generation so obsessed with material wealth and comfort that we carried on taking, ignoring the evidence before us until one day our beautiful Earth simply collapsed and died before our very eyes.