Milborne Port Climate and Nature Action group

What’s your vision?

Vision. Apparently it works. You get what you wish for. The images you have in your head you work to achieve. At the moment the pictures in our heads are understandably full of the start of carbon hell. So, instead, what can our imaginations conjure up for the alternative, the life after fossil fuels? Here’s what I enjoy imagining about life in Milborne Port…

Life is exciting! We’re all enjoying better health and new and sustainable jobs because our homes, streets and workplaces are no longer polluted from the burning of fossil fuels. It’s not just safe but fun for all ages to walk and cycle about now electric bikes and cargo-bikes have replaced so many cars and vans. Local businesses are thriving too because the streets are no longer choked with cars and people are milling around instead. Everything smells fresh and clean. The sky is unpolluted and clear blue. Bird song travels further without the noise of engines.  All of this has given us a greater sense of community as there’s more to enjoy on our doorstep.

Our streets are lined with trees to absorb carbon and we’ve got rid of unnecessary hard-standing all of which helps keep us cool in heatwaves and softens the impact of heavy rainstorms. Our homes are well-insulated too so our bills are lower and we’re more comfortable in the winter and better able to keep cool in summer. And of course, the great beauty of renewable energy is that it is not only endlessly renewable but also much cheaper than fossil fuels. Plus there is better and cheaper/ free public transport and easy to use e-bike and car pools and car shares. So, all in all, the cost of living is down and there is less inequality in the village.

As a nation we have been eating less (carbon-intensive) red meat. The added benefit has been to free up pasture land for environmental land management and landscape recovery, with funding from the Government. It’s fantastic being able to enjoy having wildlife-rich landscapes / Green Parks near us in Milborne Port and also wildlife corridors along river floodplains (which also help as firebreaks and flood alleviation sponges). Our rivers and coast are clean too. They are no longer polluted with raw sewage at times of high rainfall.

But best of all perhaps, is the relief of all those crises being behind us and the future again being something for us to look forward to eagerly for ourselves, our children and grandchildren.

Choice The only other choice is to carry on to almost unimaginable carbon hell. It will impact everything and everyone. Everything we have we will lose; nothing that we need or enjoy will survive; the level of  the impacts already happening show us the risks – to our health from extreme heat, from pandemics, diseases and pathogens travelling north; to food shortages and hunger as crops fail in more and more extreme and lengthy droughts and heatwaves; disruption of travel and the supply of food and goods due to power outages from storms, dried up rivers, landslips, washed away roads and railways; more  and more extreme wildfires and flash floods threatening our livelihoods and homes; threats to global security with fossil fuel-funded wars.

Let’s be very clear: doing nothing is not an available option; carrying on as we have been whilst keeping what we have and remaining safe is not an option. The choice we have is only between a low-carbon heaven or climate hell.  And there’s huge urgency involved.

Plan So, what is the plan? What, collectively, do we need to do to make a positive future a reality and avoid climate hell? Here are four important things. Insulate our homes; stop investing in unsafe and polluting fossil fuels and switch to clean renewable electricity; promote and support low carbon and active travel (walking and cycling), buses and trains and avoid flying; and eat less red meat.

Action Think about how great what we can get will be! So, here’s an action to take. Have a conversation with your family or friends about how you envisage your low-carbon future. See how positive you feel afterwards!

(If you’d like to watch the 4-minute video here’s the link: https://www.wearefuterra.com/thinks/sell-the-sizzle).

Remember that solving climate change solves almost everything else.

What’s your vision?

The young people’s movement,

Friday 23 September

See their web-site for details or email us below.

“Green” Drinks Tuesday September 13^th 7.30pm Tippling Philosopher     All welcome.

milborneportclimateaction@gmail.com    https://network23.org/milbornecan/

Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/597148725354915

Well, that July heatwave was well off England’s charts! I hope everyone was okay. If there’s an upside maybe it is that we have all seen that devastating climate change is underway already. Nor is this the new normal; it can only escalate, not reaching a new normal until globally we emit no more greenhouse gases than our natural support systems can take up. Is there a misunderstanding – a mistaken belief that as soon as we start cutting our emissions, things will get better? It’s important to remember that we are not faced with a dinosaur-killing meteorite; we have all the know-how, all the technology we need. A monumental effort on the part of all of is what is now required, as one climate scientist said recently.

My now 99-year-old father spent 6 years of his youth, risking his life, to fight against Nazism. I’m fairly sure I could not be that brave and my daughter when a small child asked me as a theoretical Do You Really Love Me test if I would walk a tightrope between two buildings to rescue her (from what I now forget) and I failed. But it’s no big deal to do what is within my means to address my own carbon footprint and shadow. A friend once described how when she was a child, her friend’s mother would eat the chocolate biscuits off the plate, leaving the children the plain ones. Metaphorically, are we going to leave our children and grandchildren any biscuits at all?

The future that currently faces younger generations seems extremely perilous as global emissions continue to climb; this seems unjust to young people. Older generations make this worse by leaving it to the young to sacrifice time that should be spent at school or university, or hanging out with their friends, to protest and campaign. Net Zero is a gamble at our children’s expense, tossing the problem into their future; there is no sign of any technology that can take out carbon dioxide at scale. And now there is the threat of being imprisoned for the most basic form of protesting for a liveable climate. Triple or is that quadruple injustice. So, if you’re no longer young, do please join us in voting for young people’s futures with your feet – join any climate demonstrations or marches you can, and vote for their future at the ballot box and with your bank, savings and investments.  https://switchit.green/ is a start. The climate is not political; all other issues, however important, are like arguing up on deck while the lifeboat is taking on water and sinking.   

Hedgerows It’s been lovely this year to enjoy seeing a number of hedges that have been allowed to grow a bit wider and taller, and consequently flowering and providing more fore wildlife too. May we have more please?! Cutting hedges incrementally – leaving just a few inches of the year’s growth to remain uncut and flower and fruit next year – is a simple way to provide massive benefits for nature.

Let It Grow!  A huge well done and hats off to the PCC and volunteers who have been managing the church lawns to enhance the wildlife there. Do go and have a look if you haven’t yet. At the lusher eastern end, until the last month, they have been cutting and collecting the grass growth to bring the fertility down, which starves the grasses a bit so that wild flowers have more chance to flourish in subsequent years. As I write it is a picture of yellow wild flowers. And at the Bathwell Lane end it is a joy to see the variety of wild flowers, and the butterflies and other insects, benefiting where cuttings have been collected for years, and they have now left it unmown through the spring and summer except for a tidy edge. I imagine that the swifts nesting under the church tiles will have had an easier time of rearing their young this year as a result!

It’s also fantastic to see more front gardens and frontages around the village being allowed to grow; the wild flowers are lovely to see and it is heart-warming to think of all the wildlife that benefits. Long live grass (and the wild flowers therein!) – it’s where so much lives! And thank you. “Green” Drinks Tuesday September 13^th 7.30pm Tippling Philosopher   tbc  All welcome