Counting On … – Page 77

Counting on … day 1:003

3rd January 2023

Low emissions zones help reduce traffic numbers in cities as well as improving air quality.

Silviya Barrett, director of policy and research at the Campaign for Better Transport reports “TfL estimates that six months after the expansion into inner London there were 21,000 fewer vehicles seen in the zone on an average day, a reduction of two per cent”. Further data from the Department for Transport, shows traffic flow across the capital has decreased by 11 per cent since 2019, when the ULEZ was introduced.

Next year, the ULEZ will expand across the entirety of Greater London.

Counting on … day 1.002

2nd January 2023

12 Days of Hope

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is proposing to ban sand-eel fishing early next year, following consultation with relevant parties. Sand-eels that are dredged up from the sea bed are typically used as feed for animals or farmed salmon. However sand-eels are a key part of the diet of many sea birds including the kittiwake and the puffin, both of which need protecting as their numbers are unnaturally low.

Counting on … day 1.001

1st January 2023

12 Days of Hope

Small actions mount up to create real change. For example people buying Good Roll toilet paper have provided toilet facilities for 4 school across Africa complete with toilet paper and biodegrade menstrual products transforming the lives of over 4200 lives in 2022. And their recycled + bamboo paper products have saved 7230 trees. Our local butchers have raised £10,000 from customers which have provide blankets, food and kitchens for people in Ukraine. Whilst at The Scrubbery, Rosie and her volunteers have over the last 3 years sewn 21,833 scrub items (tops and bottoms), 11,246 scrub hats, 1489 welling being bags distributed to medical staff, and 4625 laundry bags – https://www.thescrubbery.org/about

Counting on …. Day 424

31st December 2022

12 Days of Hope

Tomorrow is the start of Veganuary. This annual campaign encouraging people to rescue their consumption of animal products. 600,000 people officially taking part in 2022, up on the 580,000 who took part in 2021. YouGov tracker data suggests 2-3% of the UK population are now vegan and 5-7% vegetarian – and growing!

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Counting on … day 423

30th December 2022

12 Days of Hope

Reintroducing previously native species such as the beaver. Beavers are useful members of our natural ecosystem especially in shaping and managing rivers and preventing flooding. Beavers, hunted to extinction 400 years ago, have been reintroduced into the wild in about 20 locations across the UK.

Counting on …day 422

29th December 2022

12 Days of Hope

Rewilding allows nature to re-establish itself in our land and marine landscapes in ways that improves the health of the environment and our health as part of the ecosystem. There are over 80 such projects in the UK. The following website shows the impact rewilding can have.

https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/explore-rewilding/what-is-rewilding/rewilding-the-uplands

Counting on … day 421

28th December 2022

12 days of hope

Subsidised public transport encourages people to change the way they travel and reduces the number of vehicles on the roads. The UK Government is trialing a £2 fare cap on a large number of routes across the country. This will be in place January 1st to the end of March. This link list which routes are covered. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/2-bus-fare-cap

In London bus and tram fares are capped at £1.65 for journeys made within one hour and £4.95 as a daily cap.

Counting on …day 420

27th December 2022

12 days of hope.

Ten plus years ago we bought 6 solar panels which have paid for themselves (income earned from generation against capital cost) plus when the sun is shining we have free electricity. We wait for a sunny day before running the washing machine – yesterday we cleared a backlog with two loads and hung out the washing in the south facing bedroom where solar gain aided the drying.

Solar panels, domestic and commercial, are part of the achievable renewal energy revolution.

Counting on …day 419

26th December 2022

12 days of hope.

Today’s Guardian reported on the rewilding of Swindale Beck: ‘For Schofield, an ecologist who is senior site manager at the RSPB in Haweswater, restoring the natural process to the beck was emotional work. “The stream as it was just looked like a canal, with stone banks and levees built up as time passed from years of dredging and dumping material on the sides. So we had to be quite interventionist ourselves, using diggers, creating a channel, removing spoil. For many conservation projects you do not see the results for a very long time, but with this one, we completed it on a Friday. It rained all weekend and on the Monday when we went to look at the beck, there was just this completely restored river, that curved and meandered and looked like it had been there for ever. It was a really powerfully emotional moment.” Within about three months, the rewards continued as salmon began spawning again in the gravel bed, made possible by the slowing down of the stream and the creation of still pools and shallows. Schofield said the restoration had improved numbers of common sandpiper, kingfishers, dippers and grey herons and increased the diversity of invertebrates in the stream.’

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/26/diversity-returns-to-lakeland-stream-after-restoration-puts-its-bends-back

Similar rewilding projects are happening across the country including our nearby Beverley Brook. It’s name means beaver meadows indicating who used to inhabit its waters.

Counting on … day 417

24th December 2022

Christmas is often a time when we have more to recycle and possibly a reduced collection service. Both recycling bins and recycling lorries have a limited capacity in terms of volume. Now is a good time to see your recycling box as a Tetris puzzle. By careful stacking, interlacing and flattening, how much can you fit it?