Eco Church recommends creating a communal Christmas card scheme. Rather than each person sending a card to everyone else, individuals write one Christmas card to everyone! This is then posted on a communal notice board in church.
From the Wallingford Benefice notices: “ Christmas Card Scheme – A big thank you for your positive response to our communal Christmas card scheme this year. There were over 40 cards sent in total and displayed in the nave of St Mary’s, the ringing chamber and choir vestry. Assuming each person who took part would have sent 15 cards this means we have saved in the region of 600 cards! A great result for our environment. Would anybody like to reuse the Christmas cards and create gift tags for next year? Or perhaps you can think of a more creative ‘reuse’ option for our communal Christmas cards!”
E.F Schumacher was a philosopher and economist whose book ‘Small is Beautiful: economics as if people mattered’ was a popular read in the 1970s. His vision was able to become a reality in the shape of ‘Practical Action’. This charity provides practical (and often therefore small scale and local) projects that enable and support small communities across the globe to raise their living standards. Recently Schumacher daughter was asked in an interview what her father’s views would have been in response to the crises we face as a world today. Towards the end she says, “Fritz was often asked what people should do as individuals to support positive change. He recognised that people can feel helpless in the face of such huge challenges and can feel that their own small actions aren’t worthwhile.
His advice was always that we should support the organisations that are taking the right actions. That we should educate ourselves about the issues and share our knowledge with others. And that we should make small, positive changes in our own lives, which right now might mean reducing our carbon footprint or using less water.”
One straightforward way of reducing our carbon footprint is choosing the vegan option. When it comes to biscuits this is even easier than you would expect. Many traditional brands of biscuits sold in supermarkets are vegan and in many case have always been so! Their vegan attributes as a consequence are not always highlighted. Jeni from the Choose Vegan website has complied a lost of all the commonly sold biscuits which are also vegan.
18th November and fifth day since the finale of COP26.
If COP26 marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next in the campaign to resolve the climate crisis, are we as individuals and our appointed local and national government leaders do what is necessary to achieve our objectives?
The Climate Coalition invites is to email our MP on this very issue, and provides a template in which we can express for ourselves as individuals what concerns us, what we are doing, and what we would like our leaders to be doing. Follow the link and add your personal plea.
Adopting a plant based – ie vegan – is one easy way of reducing our carbon footprint. Here is another vegan cake recipe – vegan baking is straight forward!
Golden Parkin (sorry – no picture as we ate it all up!)
1 tbsp camelina or chia seeds soaked in 3 tbsp of warm water
100g margerine, 6 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp syrup
2 tbsp oatmeal, 8 tbsp flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 2 or 3 tsp of ground spice (I used a mix of cardamon, all spice and cinnamon
150g grated squash
Method: melt the margerine and add sugar and syrup. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. Add oat milk if needed to create a dropping consistency.
Bake: tip into a lined tin, approx 180 x 300mm, and bake for 25 – 30 minutes until form to touch.
“Every year we produce about 3% more waste than the year before. This might not sound much but, if we carry on at this rate, it means that we will double the amount of waste we produce every 25 years.”
One of the facts from C B Environmental’s fact sheet – do check out the rest of the facts.
If we aim to live sustainably then we must aim to use only our fair share of resources – both a fair share when shared across the globe, and a fair share when measured across time. At present we we use the earth’s resources faster than they can be replenished.
Make a note of what you throw in the bin each week.
Could any of it be recycled instead?
Could any of it be avoided by buying alternative products? Eg ones with less packaging or with less non recyclable packaging. Or buy products with a longer life? Or buy less if what you buy is not being used?
Repeat and see if you can reduce the number of things going into the bin the next week.
Alternatively weight the rubbish that goes into your bin each week: Using the suggestions above, can you reduce it week on week?
Who are we counting on to make a success of the COP26 conference?
The biggest countries or the smallest? The richest or the poorest? Those with most to offer or those who are most vulnerable?
World leaders? Our politicians? Business leaders? Scientists? Investors and financiers? Charities and NGOs? Faith groups? Youth groups?
Ourselves? Ourselves alone or ourselves as communities?
Who is counting on the success of the conference in order to survive? Small islands? Indigenous peoples? The poor? The disadvantaged? Wildlife? Marine life? Plant life? Forests and woodlands? Glaciers and icecaps? Coral reefs? Alpine meadows? We in the developed countries? The comfortably middle class? Our children and grandchildren?
We are all linked as part of a finely balanced ecological network, where it is one for all and all for one.
Do look back at past posts for ideas and thoughts about how we can be part of the solution, and do keep in touch as the Green Tau continues to address ecological issues.
Greening our cities will make them better places both for humans and other living beings, flora and fauna. And it will address the climate crisis reducing our dependency of carbon polluting structures and carbon polluting lifestyle choices.
“Recent studies have highlighted the importance of boosting green urban areas and connecting fragments of green space with ecological corridors to improve biodiversity and animal species dispersal within the urban landscape. If adequately designed, green corridors can improve urban ventilation, allowing for cooler air from outside to penetrate into the more densely built areas, and reducing thus the urban heat island effect. Urban green areas can also have positive effects for human health and climate change adaptation. The capacity of vegetation to retain water is an important flood prevention feature that can reduce peak discharges..
[Where] patches of urban woodlands are generally separated from each other, [this] affects the ability of many woodland species to disperse, or move among different locations with similar habitats. Ecological corridors or connections between urban woodlands, gardens or other green spaces are recognised as a way to limit the negative effects of fragmentation.”
This concept is being developed in London, where there are already many parks and green corridors – the latter often following the course of the many small tributaries to the Thames.
In July 2019 London because the world’s first National Urban Park. 45% of the city is green space which includes 3000 parks, 30,000 allotments, two national nature reserves a s 142 local nature reserves, 36 sites of special scientific interest and is home to about 13,000 different species of wildlife. London’s overall tree cover amounts to 21% sufficient for it to be the world’s largest urban forest! (The UN definition of a forest is anywhere with at least a 20% cover of trees.)
“Bike is best!” Whether you are young or old or somewhere in between. Whether you are able bodied or disabled. Whether you are super fit or just starting out. Whether it’s simply for leisure or for getting from A to B. Whether it is for deliveries or commuting or the school ‘run’.
Active travel reduces carbon emissions, improves air quality and aids healthy living. What’s not to like?
And what is included in active travel? – walking, wheeling and cycling. The following extract comes from Wheels of Wellbeing, a charity that promotes cycling for people with disabilities.
Walking: foot/pedestrian-based mobility that may incorporate the support of aids to mobility such as stick/s, cane/s, crutch/es, the arm of another person and/or assistance animal/s.
Wheeling: an equivalent alternative to foot/pedestrian-based mobility. Includes wheeled mobilities such as manual self- or assistant-propelled wheelchairs, including wheelchairs with power attachments or all-terrain attachments (such as the “Freewheel”), powered wheelchairs, mobility scooters (three and four-wheeled) and rollators. Some people rely on their cycle to move (at a pedestrian’s pace) through pedestrianised environments when it is not physically possible to walk/push their cycle. Some people use their cycle as a walking aid, by leaning on it (do not use crutches but need to lean in order to walk, due to pain etc. – they can dismount but cannot park their cycle). Some people use e-scooters (with or without a seat), to wheel/scoot through pedestrianised environment if they cannot walk unaided.
We recommend never using ‘walking’ on its own (as it likely reinforces ableist stereotypes in people’s minds) but always using ‘walking/wheeling’ together. Both words represent the action of moving at a pedestrian’s pace, whether or not someone is standing or sitting, walking/wheeling unaided or using any kind of aid to mobility, including walking aids / wheeled aids, personal assistants or support animals.
Cycling: incorporates the action of moving at speed on a wide range of pedal- powered wheeled transport that may be powered with hands and/or feet, may transport one or more person, may or may not include e-assist and usually have between 2 and 4 wheels.
The Green Tau 