Is the government doing enough to prevent our extinction?

On Wednesday 25th June 2025, I had the opportunity to listen to and question Dame Theresa Villiers (former Environment Secretary), on the UK government's progress and plans on tackling nature depletion and enabling biodiversity loss to recover. This is the most pressing issue of our time, as we rely on the symbiotic relationship between wild animals, rainforests, oceans and the soil to provide us with oxygen, freshwater, healthy food and a stable climate - without any of which we cannot survive.

Unsurprisingly, the announced plans and achievements fell far below what needs to be done in order to save life on Earth (including ourselves) from the ongoing extinction emergency.

After listening to the lecture, it became apparent that:

• The UK government's actions are not based on urgency, even though WWF projections clearly indicate that the year when most wild animals will go extinct, is 2026. Instead, they are setting gradual, reductionist targets for 2030 and 2050, at a time when radical action is a clear necessity.

• They are ignoring the evidence, or are being misinformed by their own misled scientists. A recent meeting with Steve Reed, the former Secretary of State for the environment, exposed how little he was aware of the urgency, causes and solutions to the crises - citing a lack of information from his advisors.

• Despite claims that the UK is leading the world in 'farmed' animal welfare, it really isn't. Enlarging the living space for an innocent individual who is forcibly bred to be tortured, exploited and murdered, hardly makes a difference to his/her emotional and physical suffering. 

• The leading cause of the extinction emergency was never touched upon. I asked the following question during the Q and A:

"When our home is burning, we would attend to the main cause of the fire first. I want to highlight a fact that Sir David Attenborough finally admitted, on one of his last shows - It is the systematic and 'legalised' breeding, violation and murder of over 80 billion animals on land, and 2-3 trillion beings from the ocean, every single year... to profit from their milk, eggs and bodies... which is destroying most of our rainforests, oceans and habitats. For example, 91% of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest has been caused by the animal agriculture industry.  

Therefore, the only way to address the extinction crisis is to:

 1) rapidly TRANSITION from a planet-killing animal food system to a planet-healing plant food system.

2) REFOREST and rewild the millions of acres of land, liberated from animal agriculture.

3) PROTECT our oceans by pushing for an immediate international moratorium on industrial fishing.

So, my question to you is how can the UK government:

• Empower individuals, organisations and businesses to normalise non-violence, invest in vegan living and planet-conserving ventures.

• Subsidise farmers to grow plant foods instead of paying them to exploit animals and take them to slaughter

• Incentivise land-owners to rewild their land through financial incentives (similar to returning solar energy to the grid)

• Incentivise the public to buy land to rewild, as a pension option with tax relief

• Encourage the royal family and the Church of England to rewild most of the millions of acres of planetary land under their possession (instead of leasing it for hunting and 'animal farming')"

More than seeking answers, it was another way of making government officials aware of the practical solutions to the crises. 

And as a way of clarifying any further questions that may arise, I gifted her Dr Sailesh Rao's latest book - There is a Planet B. 

Concise, evidence-based and empowering! 

It is time we ALL engage with influential people, organisations, businesses and government officials - as frequently as possible. Speak to them and gift them the book. To empower them to take the necessary individual, societal and financial actions.

We have been kept ignorant by the current exploitative system for far too long. Now, we are at the edge of the extinction cliff, one step away from our collective demise.

Year Zero is 2026. The necessary shift to normalising non-violence can only happen by understanding the WHY and HOW.

There is a Planet B. 🌎🙏

(Everything we need to know about solving the climate and extinction emergencies, is carefully curated on www.climatehealers.org. I urge you to click on it now)