Educating people to care for our planet
We educate people to take action for the future of our planet. The biggest threat to the survival of people, animals and plants is human behaviour. Education is the process by which human beings understand why and how to change their behaviour.
It’s urgent. This is how much time we have left to achieve Net Zero emissions:
“Good For Pocket” sponsored Seminars
Come to our seminars and help beat your cost of living crisis!
With inflation at an all-time high, interest rates rising, and wages under pressure, then spending time or money on “climate change” might seem crazy. But we will show how and why you can save money NOW by taking simple actions.
Household energy bills will rise by 40 % in April, and stay that way for most of 2023. So act NOW!
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.
OUR FOCUS
Our driving passion is to improve the lives of our children, and grandchildren on a planet that will still work for them.
We provide education approved by the Carbon Literacy Project through online and in-person workshops.
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. It could also save you money.
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 FACTS
Human beings have the capacity to destroy our planet. Human beings 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, we see that this will only become reality if the 200,000 households in Shropshire take action to live carbon-neutral lives.
BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
The actions we need to take require a huge behaviour change. We need to change the source of energy we use, drive less in electric cars and buses. We need to change what we eat. We need to insulate our homes better. We need to reduce the amount of air travel we make. Businesses need to change their products, the way they work and how they buy. Farmers need to change farming practices.
“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.
We need to change because the human-made release of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases has caused global warming. This has meant the climate has rapidly changed over the years, and has visibly led to floods, famine and fires. These changes threaten the future of the life of people and animals on the planet.
SAVE OUR SHROPSHIRE WORKSHOPS
We run three courses for :
- Local authority leaders/managers
- Town/parish councillors
- Householders.
They are designed to 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. 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. Education is the key ingredient for change. The following statement is a great “Chinese Proverb” that summarises the need for education.
It is easy to say the national and local governments should take the action. However, they will not take action unless people proactively show what they want, and make the required changes in their own lives. This must be based on knowledge and a full understanding of why they should change their behaviour.
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 support changes in planning regulations that will enforce that type of construction.
When people understand that they must stop buying petrol or diesel vehicles, they will buy vehicles that will radically reduce carbon consumption, and create a demand for the infrastructure for electric vehicles.
Education will mean that the action to tackle climate change will be demand-led, and not supply-imposed.
We recall that great phrase that President Kennedy said at his inaugration, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
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, 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 need to learn to live well for the planet.
We have a list of actions you can take on our website, listed by areas where you can take action:
