The rise in environmental awareness is very heartening, especially considering our local situation.

However, I am at a loss to explain why so much effort and so many resources have been spent in the campaign to ban traditional spring hunting. This is done in the hopes of saving a few hundred birds of a common species (quail and pigeons) from gunfire. Do we even consider that bird populations are perishing at an alarming rate, due to pesticide poisoning - which renders birds sterile?

Therefore, I would be amongst the first to vote for the mandatory screening and banning of dangerous pesticides that enter our country, for it is such chemicals that are causing a notable decline in bird populations worldwide. There is also the issue of trawling, a destructive fishing practice which completely eradicates the sea bed. This increasingly common practice is destroying our once rich Mediterranean coastal and marine ecosystems, while depleting our local fish species.

Such campaigns are worth the effort and, while we're at it, can we also ban Halal and Kosher meat? Certainly, animal lovers or any other decent person would not want their supermarkets and restaurants to stock the meat of tortured animals. These poor creatures suffer an agonising death while having their throats slit - an agony that can last up to 12 minutes.

These three issues, amongst others, constitute the issues that true environmentalists should be dedicating their time and efforts to.

Antoine Galea

Attard