Get involved this June!

This month, we have two amazing national campaigns you can get involved in to celebrate nature and climate action right here in your own communities, as well as opportunities to contribute to national action. Let’s get going!

The Great Big Green Week

From the 7th-15th June, The Great Big Green Week is here! For a whole week, communities up and down the country come together to share and show collective action for our planet. By visiting the website, you can see what local events are taking place near to you that you can get involved in. This year’s theme is ‘Let’s swap together for good’, to help everyone make better swaps for the environment and other benefits like health and community connection. Missed out on attending any of the events or can’t get there? Set your own personal goal for this week, perhaps including a swap you are committed to making. Maybe you will cook an entirely new plant-based meal, or take a day out using the bus, or set a long-term goal to swap your soap for a refillable bottle, or your commute from car to public transport. Make sure to share your swap with others to keep you accountable and get them involved too. The Great Big Green Week is a fantastic way to celebrate all things sustainability and environmental action and meet up with others local to you who are also interested in making their impact on Earth a little better 💚

30 Days Wild

The Wildlife Trusts annual month-long event, 30 Days Wild, is back this June! For this month, bring your focus back to reconnecting with nature. You can sign up for the challenge online, and receive resources to help you try different activities during the month, with additional resources for kids too. You can choose whether to do an activity a day, or focus on doing something each week. Activities could include listening to the birds, planting wildflower seeds, visiting your local nature reserve, making your garden hedgehog friendly, create some wild art, camping out in your garden, have a plastic free day, go on a litter pick in your local area or eat breakfast outside. Nature is us and we are nature, so allow this challenge to be an opportunity for us to prioritise getting outside and reconnecting with our natural world. Time to get a bit wild! 🍄‍🟫🌳⛅

Connect with your MP

In addition to the wonderful two events described above, we have some real action that needs taking this month people💪 On the 11th July, the Climate and Nature (CAN) Bill will return to parliament, but will only be debated if granted emergency debate time. For this it needs to support of our PM and a majority of MPs. If you haven’t already, one super important action you can take today, on your lunch break, commute or while tea is in the oven, is to head to the Zero Hour website and sign the Open letter to Keir Starmer. Then, use the website to find the details of your local MP and contact them to check if they are supporting the campaign.

If only we could leave it there, hey?! In the UK we are facing a huge threat to our local environments and nature due to the proposed Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Due to rejections of amendments to include environmental protection as part of the bill, the best way to avoid destruction of our local green spaces and wildlife is to scrap Part 3 of the bill. All of us can call on government to do this, by emailing our MP and the Treasury, which you can do via the Wildlife Trusts website. This isn’t anti-development, its doing future developments sustainably and incorporating nature. If you feel awkward emailling your MP, rest assured that this is literally their job and what they are paid to do – they act as a representative for our views, concerns and hopes. I know I’ve been there before! And if you are within travelling distance of London, consider joining the Mass Lobby on 9 July to speak to your MP and make sure nature and climate change remain at the front of their minds and their work. Our voices are so important, so make sure yours doesn’t go unnoticed! ⚖️📃🔊

Wishing you all a joyful June, spent reconnecting with nature, finding a sense of community in local events and groups and standing up for nature to our politicians and government. P.S, the photo from the top of my post was taken this morning in my garden – No Mow May has become Let it Bloom June, and now I am enjoying the beautiful buttercups scattering the lawn and watching the bees fly about enjoying the pollen and nectar. Just shows how incredibly easy it is to let nature do its thing, and lovely it is that we get to enjoy it all 😊🌼