“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela
Many of us understand the consequences of overheating our planet. These can be summarised as:
- Excessively hot temperatures – this causes more people to die, and certainly more people feel very uncomfortable
- Increased drought across Africa with water shortages leading to hunger and mass migration
- Dramatic health risks from air pollution, and poor nutrition
- Increased storms and violent weather events cause economic damage, disruption and higher costs of living
- Rising sea levels cause erosion of coastlines. Some island populations have been destroyed already.
- An increasing cost of living through the rising cost of carbon-based energy sources and loss of agricultural areas.
- Loss of animal species in oceans and on land disrupts our food chains, leading to less food.
- Wars financed by nations which have a monopoly on carbon-based fuels
The root cause of all of these severe consequences is human behaviour.
The UK’s Committee on Climate Change (CCC) says that without changes to people’s behaviours now, the target of net zero by 2050 is not achievable. 32 per cent of emissions reductions up to 2035 require decisions by individuals and households.
We believe that human behaviour is responsible for 100 % of emissions.
If every human being on the planet knew what their emissions were, and reduced them close to zero, we would eliminate the threats to our planet from climate change.
We would all be comfier, healthier, wealthier and happier too.
Education will lead to understanding the changes in behaviour which we need to make which will save lives, prevent hunger and thirst and give us all a better quality of life.
There is not much time left to get to net zero emissions:
“Good For the planet and good for pocket” talks
Come to our talks in Telford and Wrekin and learn how to reduce your energy costs by 80%!
Our energy bills in the UK are going to stay at around £ 2,000 per year for the average household for a long time to come, continuing the cost of living crisis. Taking action for the planet will help our money go further in this cost of living crisis.
We will also show you how a plant-based diet, better buying habits and moving to a better form of transport will save around 30 % of your bills.
Click on the following button to get details, find out where they will be, and book – or just turn up!
Telford and Wrekin Climate Change Fund have kindly awarded us £ 10,000 to run a series of workshops to explain how taking action for the planet is also great for our pockets too.
Carbon Literacy Education
Our driving passion is to ensure that our fellow citizens, their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and beyond will lives on this planet that are worth living.
We provide education approved by the Carbon Literacy Project through online and in-person workshops. The Trustees of Save Our Shropshire are all certified as carbon literate. We have now been accredited as a Platinum Carbon Literate Organisation.
The Carbon Literacy Project are committed to bringing about change through understanding. People who come to our courses can get a certificate for their “literacy”. You have to prove your understanding and make pledges to reduce your own and a group’s impact on the environment. Education means you will be confident to help others change their lifestyles.
The workshops will help you buy, travel, eat, use energy, build, and plant well for the planet. You will change your lifestyle away from dependence on harmful fossil fuels to one that ensures the future of our planet. They will also save you money.
What do our learners say?
Feedback from a recent delegate:
“I look forward to doing further work with you and SOS again. You are a partner organisation that plays a vital role in Shropshire in terms of tackling our climate change challenges and helping us to become carbon neutral,” said Tim Smith – Assistant Director of Commercial Services Place Directorate at Shropshire Council, following attendance at our recent Carbon Literacy for Local Authorities course.
He attended with a number of others who got their Carbon Literacy certificates.
The Facts – from the experts
Human beings have the capacity to destroy our planet. We must now take action to save it. We must stop it from becoming another barren rock circling the sun.
Let’s start with the facts. See this video from BBC TV by David Attenborough to understand why there is an emergency and what we must do about it together.
We face a climate emergency – the facts
Shropshire is one of many counties committed to preventing disasters from happening here and in the rest of the world. However, this will only become a reality if the 200,000 households in Shropshire and beyond take action to live carbon-neutral lives.
BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
The actions we need to take requires huge behaviour change. People need to change what they eat, how they travel, what they buy, and how they heat and light their homes. Businesses need to change the way they work, how they buy and how they design their products and serivces. Farmers need to change how they farm animals, and cereals to become carbon neutral.
“We are at a unique stage in our history. Never before have we had such an awareness of what we are doing to the planet, and never before have we had the power to do something about that. Surely we all have a responsibility to care for our Blue Planet. The future of humanity and indeed, all life on earth, now depends on us.” David Attenborough.
SAVE OUR SHROPSHIRE WORKSHOPS
We run courses for :
- Local authority leaders/managers
- Town/parish councillors
- Small to Medium size businesses
- Householders
- Organisations like social housing providers
They will help you understand the basic science, your impact on the planet, and what you can do to change your and others’ lifestyles to protect the planet. You will learn how to engage other people positively so they will also take the action they need to take. Click on the following button to get more detail:
Why Education?
Human beings change habits slowly, and only if they think it is good for them. Losing weight is good. Losing weight is easy. Just eat less and exercise more. And yet, so many people find it difficult to do so.
Change happens because of two ingredients – knowledge and enthusiasm. Once we know and understand why what we do today is bad, we will then move on to being positive and enthusiastic about changing our ways of life. We will then take action. The following “Chinese Proverb” summarises the need for education:
Saying that the national and local governments should take action just delays activity. They will not take action unless people proactively say what they want, and make the required changes in their own lives. This must be based on knowledge and a full understanding of what action needs to be taken.
For example, if people understand that houses must be built to an energy standard that will reduce carbon emissions, they will insist on that standard. They will then force changes in planning regulations that will make builders build houses that reduce emissions. They would not accept a house without a fitted kitchen. They should demand the installation of triple glazing and insulation to the highest level standard, along with air source heat pumps, solar panels, and electric vehicle chargers as standard.
When people understand that they must stop buying petrol or diesel vehicles, they will buy cars that will radically reduce carbon consumption, and create a demand for the infrastructure for electric cars.
Our education will mean that the action to tackle climate change will be demand-led, and not supply-imposed.
You can learn more about the science and the issues under the heading learn. Click on the following button to go there:
THE SIZE OF THE PROBLEM
Today each household in Shropshire consumes harmful gases which add up to around 18 Tonnes of Carbon Dioxide equivalent. The following diagram illustrates the situation for the Shropshire Council area:
The following similar chart illustrates the data for the Telford and Wrekin council area – 15 tonnes:
Our aim is to get to net zero by 2030. That means that the planet’s natural state is that human beings emit and take out of the atmosphere no more than the planet can manage. It is set to 2030 because that is the time by which we must stop the earth from heating by more than 1.5 degrees centigrade more than the average temperature between 1850 to 1900 (the industrial age).
Scientists have worked out that this will lead the planet to a steady-state balanced situation. To do this in Shropshire (and elsewhere), we need to change our diet to reduce our emissions of harmful gases. We need to change our buildings so that they are insulated better, and we use less oil and gas to heat them and use less electricity. We need to change our travel from using oil and petrol towards using renewable energy and hydrogen. We need to buy less to ensure that we reduce the carbon content of what we buy.
We all need to learn to help others to create better lives for all on the planet.
We have a list of actions you can take on our website, listed by areas where you can take action:
