Earth’s message

Headline in my newspaper earlier this week was Earth’s message. The heat here in the UK is rather extreme and we are not used to it either. Other countries have this kind of heat and are laughing at us and the way we are dealing with it as transport fails and there is a desperate rush to buy air coolers. Our country is definitely not prepare for this kind of heat.

I have always enjoyed watching the Tour de France on my TV. This year there have been climate change protesters on the roads blocking the riders. They were moved by the police, having made their point to a certain extent. However some riders sympathised with the protesters but said they didn’t want them on their race! I have a feeling that many agree with the fact that our climate is changing and agree with the protests as long as the protests don’t affect them. Talking to others about this I get the same kind of response. As long as they are not affected it’s OK. No-one seems to realise that every one of us has to do something to change things, whether its stopping the climate from getting hotter or making less use of plastics and caring for water.

Climate scientists tell us that the world is getting hotter and have shown us on maps, how it could be by 2050. If the earth heats up as much as that then there will be little left of what we know now. Food will not be able to be grown especially if water becomes in short supply and we will need to change our diets. We are being pushed to change to a plant based diet at the moment but if it is too hot to grow plants, then what?

Water is also necessary for us to live and all the rest of the inhabitants on the earth.Some reservoirs are already dry and in some countries, some rivers have totally dried up. This is not new. I went to Spain about 15 years or so ago and the rivers were dry then and water was rationed.

Where is the forward thinking? Why do we only think about the here and now? What are you going to so, how much are you prepared to change?

Will the extreme heat and lack of water kill off this meadow?

The Light returns

The Winter Solstice is here and the light is returning. I struggle with the dark days we have had recently and artificial light does not help. However I am starting to feel more energetic after a very bad cough and can feel my creative juices starting to flow again. I have so many new projects to start soon but need to get organised first.

This time of the year gives me hope, for the planet, for humankind and for everything that lives on our planet. Climate change is causing devastation in many places with large fires in Australia and floods in Britain and elsewhere. Here the farmers have not been able to sow the winter grain crops so there will be shortages later next year. We as a human race, have to look at how we live and eat and how we treat the land around us. Building new houses on flood plains is not a good idea but it is still happening.

Every one of us has to take a look at how we live. I know there are some places where people do not want to do this but we must do what we can. Do we want a good life for our grandchildren? Or do we want food shortages and no place to live for them?

But most of all we need to work together, to trust each other, to help each other in as many ways as possible. We need to take care of the vulnerable people in our society. We need to respect the beliefs of others whether they be Christian, Muslim or other faiths. We are all equal in the eyes of the Divine and we all share a part of that Divine.

So as the light returns, look at what you can do in your own life and in helping others. I send you love and peace and the blessings of the Solstice.

Taking action

First of all I would like to thank those who responded to my blog questions last week. It was interesting to read the various ways of looking at ‘ancestral memories or what’ and I am much happier with my interpretations now.

So today I want to write about taking action. It is fine to talk about what we should do and how to do it but actually doing it is a bit different. I know many who sit there and say ‘Well I’m alright so why do anything?’ To me this is not the right way to go. Thinking that you are OK is not enough. You have to think about others too as well as the environment which supports us.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours at a fete in one of my nearby villages where a local group for climate change had a stand. We had a petition to sign to give to the parish council, asking that all new build homes were fitted with solar panels. We also had a petition for our borough council asking it to declare a climate emergency. There are quite a few cities and towns and some counties that have already done this. But even though the emergency has been declared you can’t stop there. Changes have to be made and we all have to make them not just sit back and let others get on with it. It is very easy to say we have a climate emergency then sit back and do nothing.

I am pleased to see that the supermarkets are starting to do their bit by getting rid of plastics and offering boxes for recycling stuff. So what can you do? Apart from doing your best with the recycling, you can spread the word to others. I recently wrote a book about changing yourself and the world around you. I have been giving these away to interested readers and told them to pass the book on when they have read it. But not everyone can or wants to write a book. I use the bus service to get to and from town so I chat in the bus queue. It is easy to bring the subject of plastics up and get people talking. It is like planting a seed then watching it grow.

So what are you doing? Not just about recycling but about other ways of living, food, clothes, and so on. I have used this photo before but if you have a garden then making it bee friendly is a good start.