THE general election is spluttering into action here and there, yet each passing day still shows that a significant number of the population do not intend to exercise their democratic right to vote.

This is either because the party manifestos do not have things which may be of interest to the potential non-voter and the politicians are indeed doing their job and turning the people off in droves, or many potential non voters may feel that their single vote is unlikely to change anything as all the calculations seem so precise.

We may be witnessing an obsession with our own standards of living and almost a Dutch auction among the political parties as to who can promise to spend more and tax less.

This may be so but we should not forget that we are inhabitants of a tiny blue speck in the cosmos and have responsibility to the other inhabitants of planet Earth, including animals.

While the foot and mouth disease may have forced the authorities to use killing of healthy animals as a preventative measure, there are wild animals which are staring extinction in the face because they apparently have no economic value for us.

It is pleasing to note therefore that various international environmental agencies and the United Nations have, this week, launched a campaign to save the great apes (gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees) from extinction.

Zoologists predict that as much as one quarter to one half of all animal species could vanish in the next century.

They also seem to be agreed that a century ago, there were at least one million chimpanzees in Africa.

However, at the current rate of decline, the chimpanzee population could perish within the next quarter century.

The forest habitats of these great apes are under threat in Africa, in the Amazon basin and in South East Asia and are being daily destroyed and diminished by illegal and legal loggers, whilst a significant number of these animals are being killed for bushmeat.

So far the election has not concentrated on the environment but it is about time we started paying attention to the actions of humans in destroying this beautiful Earth and think of other human beings less fortunate than us and the members of the animal kingdom.

The effects of global warming are already with us in unusually wet weather and more devastating floods than average throughout the world.

For it would be a real shame if, having got our economy on a fast growth path, we come to realise that the earth is unable to deal with our polluting and destroying ways and in the end unable to sustain the billions of people alive today.

As a nation, we certainly could not survive, whilst the world around us was being destroyed through ecological imbalances, as species after species becomes extinct.

For those of you who are bored to tears already with the election, please remember it will be over in a fortnight, but you will let the others decide for you the future of this country, and indirectly of Earth, if you stick with boycotting the polls.

'Mehfil', the Asian language programme on Wycombe's Radio 1170AM is broadcasting interviews with all the parliamentary candidates in its weekly programme next Wednesday, starting at 8pm.