It’s sometimes a struggle to keep going with our various projects, especially with the rising levels of climate scepticism we see in the news and social media. That’s on top of the deluge of scientific papers reporting ever increasing levels of emissions, deforestation, water and air pollution that we also see every day. Let’s not mention the latest threats to ‘Drill, baby, drill’ from members of one UK political party.
That came home to me recently when I started reading an article referenced in the Guardian – Connecting with Nature. In between the stories about wildfires and flooding in Europe, this article was a little beacon of hope. Written by Miles Richardson, Professor of Human Factors and Nature Connectedness at the University of Derby, the report gives a good summary of the problem, possible solutions and a forecast of what will happen if we do not act NOW.
The article documents the massive decline in everyday human interaction with nature – 60% since 1800, which mirrors a reduction in the use of nature related words in our literature - words like river, blossom, moss, and bough. In Sheffield, it is estimated that residents only spend an average of 4.5 minutes per day in a natural space.
A connection with Nature is so important to us – it improves our physical and mental health; it makes us aware of the changes to climate and the impact on nature; and it helps us retain our skills in food production, forestry and preservation of waterways. The forecast is that it will only get worse….unless we do something about it.
So, what is recommended ?
1. Parental influence is key to encouraging greater levels of nature connectivity in later life
2. Drastically increasing biodiversity in our green spaces
3. Instilling awareness of and engagement with nature in young children and families, such as in forest schools.
All this will take concerted effort from government, local authorities and the public.
So where does Moorlands Climate Action fit into this?
For many years, our Youth Action team and our Nature Team have been working on projects that support these new recommendations.
· Wild Week – MCA volunteers go into primary schools to deliver nature based lessons and workshops – this year the theme was ‘Lost Words’ and aimed to bring back into use some of the nature based words no longer in the Junior Dictionary.
· Nature in Your Neighbourhood – MCA is a key partner in this 5 year project to develop community awareness of how to encourage more biodiversity into local plots of public land. We encourage children and their parents to get active with surveying, planting and maintenance.
· We support other groups doing work on river water quality in the Manifold Valley, and we work with Dane Valley Climate Action on their ambitious tree planting programme that is open to all ages. Many of our members are involved in other groups such as the Foxlowe gardeners, Biddulph Orchards and local allotment societies – all encourage young people to get move involved in Nature.
· Later this year, we will be holding a youth conference / mini-COP at Moorlands House and will be showcasing opportunities to improve biodiversity in their school grounds, plan for a changing climate, reduce the use of fossil fuels at their schools and finally, look at what Green Jobs there will be in the future.
· The Community Orchards in Leek are open to everyone to enjoy, and we plan to encourage more people to get involved and include young people.
· Our Repair Café volunteers work with partners to get unwanted bikes back into use so that families and young people can get outdoors.
· At events like Action West End’s Family Fun Day, we have stalls and fun activities for young people, whilst raising their awareness of opportunities to get more involved with Nature.
Without realising it, we are already doing our bit to reverse the trend in Nature Connectivity - maybe you can help us make even more improvements?
MCA Coordinator Mike Jones