Watching the first two episodes of BBC2’s I bought a rainforest has been difficult viewing. Very difficult . But it’s something we should all be watching.

It’s all too easy to turn a blind eye to the destruction of the natural world and shrug our shoulders apologetically, with the view: “It’s not me mate, I’ve never chopped a tree down in my life.” After all, there’s always someone else to blame. “It’s those illegal loggers ain’t it, or the greedy bastard’s mining for gold….” And then we collectively reach for the remote control because it’s not “our” problem. I mean, there’s far more pressing things to do, like voting for the next winner of Britain’s Got Talent, or the next person to be booted out of the Big Brother house.

In the past, whenever I heard the phrase “a forest the size of Wales had been cut down” I…