Milborne Port Freecycle Event – all day Friday 15^th and Saturday 16^th July.

Free to join in! Do you have things you no longer want? Like the idea of finding free gifts? Providing the weather is settled we’ll try out this successful idea from Bruton for the full two days on those dates. Join in this community event by leaving any pre-loved items by your front gate for people to walk by and choose, and/ or having a wander around the village and choosing some lovely items to take home.

All you need to do is find a spot by your front gate or doorstep where you can discreetly display some items you no longer want or need, and which you are happy to gift to someone else, above dog wee zone and preferably with a note saying something like “Free to a good home”. Then have a wander around the village to choose the pre-loved gifts you’d like to re-home!

Please make sure you remove anything that’s left at the end of the day so as not to litter the streets – you’re responsible for what you put on your doorstep until someone has claimed it, and also please make sure not to obstruct pavements or walkways.

If the weather is poor, we’ll try a week later. Look out for posters and updates on Facebook (Milborne Port News and Everything). And by all means let others know what you have on offer on Facebook.

The more people that join in the merrier, and hopefully we can stop many things going to waste. Plus have lots of fun!

Visit a Wilder Open Garden!

You’re invited to enjoy free tea, scones or cake and wildlife at a Wilder Open Garden in Lower Kingsbury on Saturday 16^th July 2pm- 4.30pm.

RSVP before to the email address below to ensure sufficient baking is done!

Please bring your own mug!

In aid of Somerset Wildlife Trust:

Donations to: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/s-warren6

milborneportclimateaction@gmail.com    https://network23.org/milbornecan/ Get up-to-date with a range of fact-based articles by experts on the environment, especially climate change and biodiversity loss; join our new group on Facebook, Milborne Port Climate and Nature Action

Who doesn’t want to leave a better world for our children?! Yet none of us needs reminding that we are at a really critical point in history, with the world facing multiple crises over climate, food security, health and biodiversity. So, it’s good to know that the government has a plan “A Green Future: our 25 year plan to improve the environment”. And we can all do our bit and have fun by helping record what wildlife is around us. (Don’t know a dandelion from a daisy? There’s an app for that! See below).

Currently only 10% of the country supports abundant and diverse wildlife, so Defra’s aim is to triple this by 2030, creating space and expanding a network where wildlife can thrive. Every area, however tiny, counts, whether it’s a garden, a churchyard, school grounds, farms or a community space; these all add up and make a difference.

Somerset Wildlife Trust is heading this vital endeavor in our county, with its plan Create A Wilder Somerset 2030. Each of us, in our own and other communities, can help to record the baseline, and then track positive changes over the decade. They’ve made it so easy! There are two free apps, which work together, Seek – to identify what you see – and iNaturalist to record it – the one feeds information to the other. You don’t have to give away where you live – there are 3 location settings – open, obscured (blurred to within 100m) and private.

Wilder Somerset 2030 will deliver thriving wildlife: carbon storage; protected soils, peatlands, meadows and woodlands; new meadows, hedgerows, woodlands and grasslands; ‘wilded’ gardens and urban areas, and clean and healthy restored rivers and wetlands slowing flow and reducing flooding.

Nature has a huge role in our health and well-being. So, do come and find us at the fete on 4^th June to find out more and try out the apps (please download them in advance) on some wildflowers we’ll bring from our garden. We’ll be operating a Climate Hub too – to chat about what we can all do about it.

Hear what’s it like to be a kid right now: take 7 minutes to read The Kids are Not Okay by Julia Steinberger (Google those words); it’s important. There is a link within the article for what to do.

“Public and private finance flows for fossil fuels are still greater than those for climate adaptation and mitigation (high confidence)”   IPCC AR6 Mitigation Report, SPM p.15

Not good news:

And what I can do about it:

https://jksteinberger.medium.com/the-kids-are-not-ok-c518fffb475

What to do about it: Link within article: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2973tOyZ-TA

Milborne Port Climate and Nature Action group

Tackling the cost of living…

Here are two really good web-sites that may or may not be helpful with options and information in the struggle with soaring fuel bills and/ or saving energy for the climate:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/energy_saving_tips – provides many tips and also comparisons of the energy used in the kitchen, for example in cooking different ways (best to worst: microwave, induction hob, electric hob, oven; slow cookers are good energy savers too).

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/heat-the-human-not-the-home-save-energy/ Heating the human not the house can save a lot of money; for next winter, as well as clothing tips, the web-site provides information including both initial and running costs per hour/week of reusable handwarmers, hot water bottles, electric blankets and heat pads, and (more expensive to buy but cheaper to run) electric gilets, which can all help save money and fuel.

Spring is free to enjoy!

We’re lucky to have East Hill (below the bend in Wheathill Lane) with its variety and succession of wild flowers and butterflies through spring and summer on our doorstep. And the fabulous Butterfly Conservation reserve, Alners Gorse, between Kings Stag and Hazelbury Bryan is within a fit cyclist’s reach. The nightingales will still be singing when this magazine reaches you. If you’d like to take part in conservation tasks in Somerset and Dorset, take a look at the eucan.org.uk web-site. They’re a really cheerful bunch and the tasks make a worthwhile day/ half day out.

At the time of writing, there is no sign of Swallows and House Martins having returned to breed. They will have a late start. Every garden that has a wildlife area, however small, perhaps with No Mow May, Let It Bloom June, will have wild flowers that help support those extra insects which may make all the difference to the future of all our much-loved summer visitors.

Have you seen the Climate Game? Get to lead the world! https://ig.ft.com/climate-game/

It’s fun, hopeful and informative.

Milborne Port Climate and Nature Action group

Working together in the village to help wildlife to flourish.

Who is not looking forward to spring? Warmth and longer days for sure; hopefully plenty of sunshine and flowers, the song of birds, the hum of bees and colourful flights of butterflies and more to delight us?  Sadly, though, we have gradually become one of the most nature-depleted nations and that affects us all.

More than 97% of hay meadows have disappeared; insect numbers are crashing – and we learnt recently from BBC’s Winter Watch that there are now 900 million fewer birds over Europe  than 40 years ago. 900 million. The good news is that there are now many initiatives to start to address these losses. Many of you will know about Plantlife’s successful Let it Grow and Roadside Verge campaign, for example.  

Last summer SSDC trialled a few No Mow areas in Milborne Port, and we will be liaising with them to add to these. The sizeable piece of grassland opposite Crackmore Garage supports a good number of wild flower species and South Somerset Highways who we have been in contact with do not cut more than a metre length along the edge; please respect this area and leave it uncut to let the wild flowers flourish; (we will be sowing some local wildflower seed over the recently patch of churned up ground).

Working together with Adam Gale from West Coker and EUCAN, our group will also be helping with advice for and management of Wheathill Meadow, the churchyard and, of course, East Hill.

It’s also encouraging and helpful that South West in Bloom was actively looking for evidence of such initiatives last year. By cutting a band along the edge of these bits of grassland, they can have a neat, cared for look. Let’s tidy away litter but not cut wildlife!

Please get in touch if there’s an area of grassland near you you’d like advice on to see it managed to encourage wildlife.

More wild flowers and uncut grass; more insects; more hedgehogs; more birds; more joy and inspiration!

When daisies pied and violets blue 
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue 
Do paint the meadows with delight… 
Love’s Labours Lost

Don’t forget the opportunity from 14th-21st March to have thermal imagery of your house / community building. Contact us via the email below.

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

And find us on Facebook.

Is the fear of climate change keeping you up at night?

The piece below explores how we can learn to live with climate anxiety, and transform our fear or paralysis into hope and positive action

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/wellness/a38760123/eco-climate-anxiety/

Milborne Port Climate and Nature Action group

Hunting Heat Loss! Thermal Imaging Camera comes to Milborne Port!

SSDC is trialling a thermal imaging camera loan scheme this winter (you may have seen a piece about it on BBC News, see link below) and we have booked it for Milborne Port for the week 14^th-21^st March. The idea is to undertake prearranged thermal imaging of our communities’ homes and buildings. The thermal imaging camera will identify heat loss areas which may indicate where the installation of insulation could help in reducing fuel bills. Our homes account for 22% of the UK’s carbon emissions, so as SSDC says “there needs to be an urgent application of energy efficiency improvements if we are going to hit the carbon reduction targets necessary” to arrest climate change.

Please register your interest via our email below, putting Thermal Imaging as the subject, and provide your house name / number and street, and we’ll get back to you in March when we have worked out how best to survey the most homes in the limited time available!

Find details of what to do once areas of heat-loss within your home have been identified here: https://www.southsomersetenvironment.co.uk/thermalimagingproject; these include some cheap and simple options too such as heat reflective aluminium foil behind radiators and draught excluders for letter boxes and doors.

For more info please go to the South Somerset Website here.

BBC News – Energy bills: Thermal imaging used to help with cost of heat loss

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-60023918

Happy New Year!

We are alive in a pivotal decade in human history so I’m thinking ahead to 2030 – by which time greenhouse gas emissions need to have been halved to keep our planet habitable. We don’t and can’t know whether that will have happened though we can decide what part we will have played.

When I think of my loved ones in 2030 I know how I want their lives and future to be looking. It won’t be the same as now. It could be looking immeasurably better for them if we have achieved the 50% cut or, frankly, terrifying if we haven’t. We are truly in a race against time.

It’s good to imagine how green and bright our lives could be by 2030. Here’s one picture. We are well on the way to a cleaner, safer, greener and fairer world, powered by renewable energy provided freely by nature, maybe from within our own community. Our village is less noisy, smelly and polluted, and we all have more access to natural green areas where everyone can relax and connect with nature. There are more trees growing along our streets to mop up any pollution, soften the storms and capture carbon. The sky is bluer, there’re more birds and bees and butterflies, and the air is filled with birdsong and the humming of bees in the spring. We are healthier because we’re walking and biking around more, making use of accessible active transport routes and enjoying the clean air because a brilliant, fast and cheap public transport network has taken loads of vehicles off the road.

We are suffering less from air pollution not only when we’re out and about but also in our own homes (with heat pumps and induction hobs). We are enjoying taking greater care of our possessions, being able to get them repaired and making sure they were necessary and made to last when we bought them. It is a more delicious world with more varied foods too as we eat more plant-based foods, knowing they are not only healthier for us and the planet but leave much more space for nature. We are glad to live in a fairer world. We have slowed down and spend more time with friends and family and less time rushing around; and find we are less stressed and more contented as a result.

I’m aware that being in the richer half of this country’s population, I am among the wealthiest 10% of the global population and co-responsible for half of all global emissions. I therefore feel my responsibility to act and use any influence I have positively. Our household supports organisations lobbying for change; regularly writes to our MP and PM; makes sure our money is not doing harm, and has already halved our greenhouse gas emissions which are now below the UK average.  Whatever state the world is in by 2030, we will feel glad to be playing our part.

Doing something helps reduce anxiety, and everyone’s voice and decisions are important in advocating for change wherever we live, work, study, shop, bank, save, invest and more. It feels better to be part of the change we wish to see! And it’s reassuring to recall how quickly change happens – it’s usually slow at first. Think of where we were with the internet in 2000. Businesses and entire industries have made many significant transitions in less than 10 years.

Our responsibility now is to ensure that future generations will look back and be proud of the actions we take.

Will you be making any resolutions? Please look for links and more information on Facebook, and let’s share ideas.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/18/ten-ways-confront-climate-crisis-without-losing-hope-rebecca-solnit-reconstruction-after-covid

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

And find us on Facebook.

PS Dubious about climate change? Read the verifiable, fact-based science below to bust the myths and misconceptions! It’s not a matter of opinion. Sadly.  Yes, the earth has had these concentrations of greenhouse gases before (but not during human history) and virtually the whole suite of life on earth then, because it had slowly evolved to be adapted to the accompanying climate, was different. Most species cannot evolve to adapt at the current rate of change – over decades. Unfortunately, anyone who says differently is not a climate scientist, is misinformed or believes they have a vested interest in continuing business as usual. (Not an option that will last).

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide

skepticalscience.com/argument.php

COP26  On a misty Saturday morning in October, fuelled by tea and biscuits, a lively group of people of all ages were to be seen marching 1.5 km through the lanes and fields of Milborne Port, led by drums and flanked by the Grim Reaper of Climate Change. People all over the world have committed to walking 1.5 km before the COP26 talks between 1st and 12th November as part of the World Climate March – a coordinated global march for those who cannot go to the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, and who want to show their concern about keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees. A photo and video montage of these World Climate Marches will be shown in Glasgow. 

Members of the Milborne Port Climate and Nature Action group will also be joining the rally and march through Bristol at noon on Saturday 6^th November on the Global Day of Action for Climate Change. We will catch the 9.36 train from Yeovil Penn Mill to Bristol Temple Meads that day to join us. For details please Google Global Day of Action Bristol. Email us if you‘d like to link up.

Hedgehogs By the time you read this, Guy Fawkes night will be upon us. Please think of hedgehogs, beloved by children of all ages and now a species vulnerable to extinction, and reassemble or relocate any pile of wood before you set it alight. Piles of wood are favoured nesting and hibernating places for hedgehogs. If hedgehogs visit your garden (lucky you!) providing food for them (complete kitten food with protein as the prime ingredient) will help young hedgehogs put on enough weight to start hibernating, and all hedgehogs wake up a number of times through the winter and need to feed.

Hedge planting in the village More volunteers needed. Please email if you’d like to help.

World Climate March – Oct 9^th

The march is organised by a partnership including Christian Aid, Oxfam International and The Climate Coalition, and is supported by the RSPB, the Woodland Trust and Fridays for Future among others.

People all over the world are committing to walk 1.5 km to show their concern about keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees. What happens is that we take a video of the march and send it to Oxfam who will use it for publicity ahead of the COP 26 talks in November.

Milborne Port Climate and Nature Action are taking part in the World Climate March on Saturday October 9th.

We will gather at 10.15 am on the wide grass verge on Wick Road where it is joined by Court Lane, heading off at 10.30 am along the path that runs on the north side of Manor Road and New Town towards (though not necessarily as far as) Vartenham Hill.

Booking if possible to milborneportclimateaction@gmail.com (/ let me know if you would like to join our emailing list).

If you like, do bring placards (bold letters on the back of an empty cereal packet is an easy way to make one that shows up in photos), dress up and / or bring a musical instrument to join in! Or come as you are! Let’s make a song and dance about our climate!

Wellies or walking boots probably needed. Walking is entirely at your own risk.

Please spread the word to your family and friends whether or not you can make it yourself.

Join us afterwards for an informal pub meeting in the Tippling Philosopher at 12 noon.

https://www.worldclimatemarch.org/

Fighting climate change and inequality is for everyone.

The next decade is critical to putting us onto a safer track.

Today’s targets are a long way off what is needed to keep global heating below 1.5°C and prevent the worst impacts of climate change. At COP26 leaders must commit to delivering the 1.5°C goal and their fair share of action. Governments across the world are now making important decisions about how to

By joining the World Climate March you can join other communities and changemakers around the world, and show leaders you want action on the climate crisis and inequality.

Every one of us can help and spark a change for people and our planet.

The World Climate March will mobilize people around the world to march for climate justice.

‍Just one rule:
Record any part of your march and send us the video.

The World Climate March will mobilize people around the world to march for climate justice. Participate by filming your march, and make it your own by use of costumes, placards, chants, ANYTHING! You can complete the march in any way you like, with your friends, family, by yourself, even during a local or national march!

The eyes of the world will be on the UK at the end of the month when we host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Glasgow. COP 26 provides a real window of opportunity for global cooperation in tackling climate change at this critical juncture in the history of our civilization as there is lots of progress still to be made to avoid a catastrophic break down in civilization.

In reality we are not a leader on climate. Because greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere what our tiny nation has emitted over the years is a mountain compared to that of many countries – a whopping 4.7% of the global total. So, it’s great that our emissions are coming down as we have a huge responsibility for those historic emissions. However, because we are decarbonizing from a very high level and are not yet doing it fast enough we are not world leaders, especially as we are not on course to keep within our promised climate targets.

It’s also worth remembering that when countries set targets or measure or compare CO2 emissions, they tend to focus on production-based emissions – CO2 emitted within a country’s own borders. However, this fails to count emissions from international aviation and from traded goods – the CO2 emitted in the production of goods elsewhere, which are later imported. And of course, most of our goods are made abroad.

We still have a lot to do – we are making progress on decarbonizing our power but transport emissions have been rising quite sharply, for example. How much will Net Zero cost? is a question that is both the wrong one and not a real question either! The only relevant question is whether it is worth doing. To which the only answer is that it is literally and starkly vital. And will bring huge health and well-being benefits over and above tackling climate change. The government can channel money from fossil fuels and action the necessary policies and retrain skilled workers. In a non-agricultural nation like ours, as Keynes said, if we are able to do it we can do it.

Unfortunately, any excuses we make for delaying action make no difference whatsoever to the physical consequences of the greenhouse gases we continue to emit and the UK has yet to adopt and implement the ambitious policies necessary to achieve its 2030 target and firmly set itself on a path to net zero whilst the total fair-share contribution of the UK – domestic emissions reductions and emissions reductions achieved abroad – would need to be equivalent to the UK reaching close to zero emissions by 2030.

So, we continue to put written pressure on our MP and our PM and will have supported our young people’s Global Climate Strike on Friday 24th September. We also plan to take part in the Global Day of Action during COP 26 in November. Do join us. More on Facebook or email us.

*Bonfire warning! An early reminder that one or more of our few remaining hedgehogs in the village may be nesting in any piles of wood that have been sitting in your garden. Please dismantle / move them before setting them alight. *