Category: Counting On …

Reflections and actions during COP26 and going on

Counting on …day 153

15th April 2022

One way of reducing waste, packaging and shipping, is to make your own at home. The RHS gives this recipe for making potting compost: 

Make your own potting compost:  For potting on and containers: 

4 parts loam (soil) 

1 part garden compost, municipal green waste, or well-rotted manure

1 part leaf mould

1 part sharp sand

1 heaped trowel of seaweed meal per loaded wheelbarrow

This is a basic mix. Add more sand for alpines and herbs, and use composted bracken instead of garden compost for acid-loving plants like blueberries.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardening-for-the-environment/low-carbon-gardening/low-carbon-container-growing

 Counting on …day 150

13th April 2022

We have just invested in a Rework recycling box for all our otherwise un-recyclable plastic. We will continue to use our kerb side recycling bin for plastic pots and bottles, the soft plastic recycling facility at the Coop, toothpaste tubes at Boots, but this box will be for all the other plastics we cannot otherwise recycle. We can even use it for lateral flow test kits. It should reduce our landfill to nil. 

Mixed Plastic Recycling Box

Counting on …day 149 

12th April 2022

It may not look much, but I was glad I was wearing my cycle helmet when I collided head on with a car. It took sufficient of the impact to allow me to leave hospital 24 hours later with just a cracked vertebra. 

Safety helmets were designed to protect us in case of accidents. And as accidents do happen, we should always wear them. 

 Counting on … day 145

8th April 2022

Tomorrow Extinction Rebellion will be standing up for action to halt the climate crisis. Be brave and show your support, if not with for XR, then with other climate action groups or even just as one individual showing solidarity with all the other individuals who are equally passionate about saving our world.

 Counting on …day 144

7th April 2022

Hope is a great gift. It gives us the confidence to smile and keep going, even

when the odds seem stacked against us. Hope is often to be found in small things. A weed, against the odds, pushing up between the paving stones.  Spotting a first ladybird. Taking time to enjoy the aroma of a fresh cup of coffee. 

Counting on … day 143 

6th April 2022

Yesterday the IPCC produced the third and final part its reports assessing where we are as world vis a vis the climate crisis. The news is not good. “It’s now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5C,” said Prof Jim Skea, a co-chair of the report. “Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible.”

Write to your MP and to your local Council – how are they going to respond? What immediate and deep emissions reductions will they make possible? Ask the same question of businesses. And we must ask the same question of ourselves.

Counting on …day 142

5th April 2022

Being an ethical consumer means choosing to buy things that have a positive impact on our world and avoiding those that don’t – and the small items matter just as much as the big ones! So what about a cup of coffee? Be informed before you buy. 

Starbucks paid just £5.4m in UK corporation tax last year despite making a gross profit of £95m

(https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/mar/30/starbucks-uk-corporation-tax-profit-administrative-expenses-royalties) despite paying its parent company £26.5m in royalties. In 2021 Starbucks received a tax credit worth £4.4m in the UK because of losses made during the pandemic in 2020  despite the coffee chain’s US parent company making a profit during the same period of $1.2bn (£870m). (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/18/starbucks-received-uk-tax-credit-in-2020-despite-making-profit-in-us)

 Counting on … day 141

4th April 2022

Taking care of our mental well-being is important. It keeps us better and

happier and our friends and families too. The Blue Prescribing Project aims to help people actively look after their mental well-being through developing closer links with nature. The Project is designed and delivered by the Mental Health Foundation and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, and is currently operating at the London Wetlands Centre. https://www.wwt.org.uk/our-work/projects/blue-prescribing

For enquiries and referrals please contact blueprescriptions@wwt.org.uk