People who say the earth’s climate has changed throughout history are right.
People who say the climate change we’re currently experiencing is normal are wrong.
They’re foolishly, irresponsibly, head-in-the-sand wrong.
Climate change prior to the industrial revolution was triggered by variations in earth’s orbit that altered the levels of solar energy reaching our planet.
20th and 21st century changes are different, dramatic, and a direct result of human activity. Global temperatures are climbing, ice sheets are shrinking, sea levels are rising, glaciers are retreating, and ocean acidification is increasing.
If you’re unhappy about that – and you should be – you have two choices.
You can do nothing or you can do something.
Adella Pritchard and Simon Walkling are doing something.
On Saturday March 9th they hosted a Going Greener Coffee Morning at Christ Well URC, inviting organisations and community leaders to discuss local action that can make a practical difference. As custodians of our planet, we’ve been heading sharply in the wrong direction. The mood at Christ Well was focused and positive, though.
Representatives of, among others, Community Lives Consortium, A Rocha, Swansea Council and the People’s Library shared information on a range of existing projects and started the ball rolling on some new ones.
Did you know that Circus Eruption, one of Wales’s most popular and distinctive non-profit organisations, recently initiated a project to construct planters for the area surrounding their home, the former St Luke’s Church in Cwmbwrla? Sessions on Thursdays throughout March have launched this project. If you’d like to know more, email contact@circuseruption.co.uk or visit their Facebook page.
Have you heard of Repair Café Wales? With 140 locations around the country, it offers us a network of skilled craftspeople who fix items that might otherwise be tossed into landfill sites. There are three repair cafes in Swansea alone. Find out more here.
Are you interested in taking part in the regular activities at Ageing Well, including sessions focused on cooking on a budget, avoiding food waste and making optimum use of electricity at home? Join them on Mondays from 1pm to 4pm in the Ocean Room at the Swansea Waterfront Museum to experience these sessions for yourself.
Were you aware that the Carbon Trust website enables you to measure your carbon footprint? Once we know what something costs, we can make meaningful plans to control that cost. It’s every bit as true for carbon emissions as it is for cold, hard cash.
Guess how many empty pet food pouches end up on British landfill sites every year? An estimated 8.8 billion. Instead of adding your share to an unhealthy pile, you could take them to retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrisons, all of which will take them off your hands.
Perhaps it's time you visited St John’s Day Centre in Cwmbwrla, home to a Men’s Shed, a Food Pantry, a Community Garden and a Period Dignity Programme, delivering economic and environmental benefits all year round.
Have you made a note on your calendar for Earth Hour on March 23rd? On that Saturday each of us can play our part by switching off the lights, cutting back on electricity usage or taking another form of action with a positive environmental outcome for just one hour. That’s not much to ask, is it?
All of this information was shared by local people eager to contribute, and there was further good advice from Delyth Higgins, the Eco Church Officer for Wales at A Rocha UK. Delyth encourages churches of all denominations to play an active part in green initiatives, and as a Swansea native she takes pride in the fact that this city is home to one of only two Environment Centres in Wales. Delyth also flagged up the Spring Clean Cymru litter picking initiative covering the second half of March.
The People’s Library has a series of environmental initiatives underway, and there’s one in particular we were pleased to share on March 9th. We believe in empowering people and channelling their passion and creativity into meaningful action. In 2024 we’re piloting a Citizen Scientist programme. By making a presentation on a relevant topic and completing an environmental project of their choice, they will qualify as Citizen Scientists with a specialism in environmental science.
The talent and awareness of young people gives us hope for the future, and we look forward to helping them fulfil their talent and enhance their awareness. The meeting on March 9th gave us hope for the future too. It’s easy to do nothing, using the excuse that one individual acting in isolation can’t make a difference. Following Adella and Simon’s lead, the people of Cwmbwrla are ready to sweep that misconception aside. We’re a growing army of individuals, acting in a common cause, and we’re determined to make a difference.
To find out more, and to sign up for our green initiatives, email adellapritchard@gmail.com.
Positive environmental action is gathering pace.
We’re giving it the green light.