David Sale was very wide of the mark when he triumphantly declared “that is a separate issue”. (Tui Motu, August 2011)

Nothing is a separate issue. Everything in life is interconnected. This is the principle of interdependence.

Even the architects of the world acknowledged this when they signed up to the “Declaration of Interdependence” at the UIA Chicago Congress in 1993.

There is nothing wrong with picking your issue. By all means focus on the current alarming extinction of species, or the loss of habitat, or even the violence of our built environment, but do not pretend that all these issues are not interdependent.

We have one world, one enormous interconnected system, and it seems, with time running out, only one chance to get out of the environmental mess we are in.

David would do well to remember that nature has no need of us. If we eliminate ourselves most of the world’s environmental problems will have been dealt with in a single grand gesture. You do not even need to study history to work that out.

Tony Watkins

First published in "Tui Motu" September 2011