Author: Judith Russenberger

Environmentalist and theologian, with husband and three grown up children plus one cat, living in London SW14. I enjoy running and drinking coffee - ideally with a friend or a book.

Counting on … day 69

23rd May 2025

Community Energy

Adverse weather can cut the grid supply of electricity on which our lifestyles are so reliant. Having a locally based unit producing electricity would seem advantageous – for the individual householder this could be solar panels – but communities might also want to have a locally owned wind turbine or hydro plant. Community projects can also secure better energy security by ensuring individual homes are  well  insulated and that households have access to energy at affordable prices.

“Community energy is about people working together to generate electricity locally using renewable technologies that both reduce carbon emissions and save money.” (1)

“Community energy’ is when citizens work together to build renewables or support households in reducing their consumption. It often refers to community-led generation projects, for example a wind farm or solar panel project which members of the community part or fully own.” (2)

  1. https://communityenergypathways.org.uk/about/
  2. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/energy/what-community-energy

Counting on … day 68

22nd May 2025

Depending where you live, you may have easy access to a library of things meaning if you need a power drill, or a sewing machine, a wood plane or a fish kettle, you can borrow one for a small fee. And thus avoiding spending far more on something you may only use once. That is good for sustainability and potentially increases resilience in the event of a crisis. It can also nurture structures and habits that makes for a resilient community – a community that can look after each other. 

https://www.cagoxfordshire.org.uk/library-of-things
https://www.libraryofthings.co.uk/

31 Days Wild: 21st May 2025

If wildness can exist even when there is a degree of human intervention, then gardens too can, to some degree, be wild. ie gardens can be cultivated in such as way as to create or support areas of wildness. These could be corners that are left to run wild, or lawns managed as meadows (although they are likely to be cut by hand rather than by grazing animals). But even when gardens are more formally cultivated they can still support wildlife with flowering plants that benefit pollinators, log piles that benefit insects and beetles, ponds that benefit frogs and dragonflies, and in the absence of pesticides, aphids and caterpillars that benefit birds. 

31 Days Wild: 20th May 2025

Wild is a word that can mean natural, untamed, or uncultivated. It can also mean free. Most of fauna in Richmond Park is wild with the exception of the deer. They were artificially introduced and their health and numbers are artificially maintained but with quite a low key touch (ie providing some winter feed and culling weaker animals to maintain herds appropriate to the size of the Park). The flora too is largely wild with the exception of the areas of p planted flower gardens and the Isabella Planation where the plants are purposefully cultivated. Equally there is a degree to which the trees are cultivated in so far as dangerous branches are removed and new trees are planted to create new areas of woodland. Nevertheless these interventions do enable wildlife to thrive. Richmond Park is London’s largest designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). According to Natural England “Richmond Park has been managed as a royal deer park since the seventeenth century, producing a range of habitats of value to wildlife. In particular, Richmond Park is of importance for its diverse deadwood beetle fauna associated with the ancient trees found throughout the parkland. In addition the park supports the most extensive area of dry acid grassland in Greater London.”

Counting on … day 67

21st  May 2025

Food security even in the UK is tenuous. The action group Sustain observes that “the 2023 National Risk Register only conceives of one direct food impact, that of food supply contamination. In terms of other potential disruption, the current advice to the public is to store 3 days’ worth of food at home.  While there are already 7.2 million people experiencing food insecurity in the UK, with people unable to afford to feed themselves for one day let alone to stockpile, we need to be leaning toward community-scale food storage and systems over a “preppers” mentality.” 

In the UK most of our food comes via supermarket chains and their large scale distribution networks which makes us all vulnerable if just one part of that system fails – flood, fire, illness etc. We don’t have a local network of food supplies that could provide us with emergency food. More locally based – and therefore likely smaller – farms, and community gardens, allotments  and orchards etc would help improve local resilience. Do read this item from Sustain detailing how local authorities etc could achieve this.

https://www.sustainweb.org/blogs/mar25-building-food-resilience/

Counting on … day 66

20th  May 2025

Community gardens both foster communities and increase community resilience. 

The Community Gardens website lists the following benefits as a starting point:

  • Community gardens reduce carbon emissions by promoting local food production and minimising transportation needs.
  • They improve air quality and support biodiversity, creating habitats for various species.
  • These gardens enhance soil health, which is crucial for carbon sequestration and water filtration.
  • Community engagement in gardening fosters social connections and builds sustainable communities.
  • Urban heat islands are mitigated through the cooling effects of greenery, improving city liveability.
How Community Gardens Are Transforming Our Fight Against Climate Change: 15 Powerful Ways to Make a Difference! 🌍 [2024]

31 Days Wild: 19th May 2025

I like to think of Richmond Park as a place for wildlife, be that ancient oak trees, sky larks, or deer. But is it really a ‘wild place’? It was originally created from farmland as an exclusive park where Charles I could hunt deer – a managed environment. Even today its biodiversity is shaped by a high degree of human impact – both the work of the Park’s management team who weed out invasive species, manage deer numbers, and plant new trees, and the large numbers of people (and their dogs)who use the space for recreation, commuting and for mental wellbeing. 

What makes somewhere a wild space?

Counting on … day 65

19th  May 2025

Food banks make good commmunity hubs and increase resilience. Tottenham food bank has the strap line “Tottenham Foodbank: empowering community resilience, one parcel at a time”.

While sadly necessary, food banks ensure people who need it receive food and other essentials. Those who come and those who run the food banks also  become means by which information is shared and by which community resilience is increased. In the event of a crisis, having a community already in place will help the people in that locality better cope with the crisis. Knowing whose who, knowing who is more vulnerable, knowing who has particular skills or knowledge can really make a difference. 

https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/communities-and-social-justice/civil-society/community-insights-hub/community-insights-hub-story-library/tottenham-foodbank-empowering-community-resilience-one-parcel-time

31 Days Wild: 18th May 2025

Today’s Richmond Park sighting was of a kestrel. It’s screechy call first caught my attention and looking round it was perched high on an old oak tree. Another kestrel flew in and I suspect entered a hole in the tree where likely they had made a nest. 

I see kestrels fairly often in the Park – often because of the distinctive way that they can hover in the air. 

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/birds/kestrel/