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2015 – Goodbye to disposables!

Happy New Year to all readers!

It may be unusual, but January is one of my favourite months. My birthday falls at the end, I met my husband on a cold winter night and one year later, we got engaged. Personal milestones aside, I enjoy welcoming in the New Year and making plans.

My resolution this year is to stop using disposable items, in particular plastic bags, take away cups and bottles. The terrifying scale of the plastic material gathering in our oceans was unveiled for the first time last year. (www.theguardian.com/…/full-scale-plastic-worlds-oceans-revealed-first-time- pollution) Continue reading →

Coming from Gratitude

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The quiet days between Christmas and the New Year are a special time. If we’re fortunate enough to have a holiday, they give us space to relax with our loved ones, enjoy long winter walks followed by hot chocolate or mulled wine and curl up by the fireside with a brilliant novel or a classic film. These sleepy moments also allow us to focus on the past year and what we are most grateful for.

This week I have been reading Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone. In this inspiring book, the authors discuss ‘coming from gratitude’ as a profound motivation for environmental activism. By focusing on what we love about the Earth, we develop a positive outlook which in turn, helps us to build the strength we need to protect our planet. Continue reading →

Seasonal Joy

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Aidan Christmas 2

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” Hans Hofmann

I love these words and find them endlessly inspiring. They seem particularly relevant when thinking about the festive season.

I am really looking forward to our first family Christmas with Aidan and I recently signed up to the One million women no waste festive challenge (http://www.1millionwomen.com.au/2014/11/04/no-waste-festive-season/). This inspiring challenge requires us to reduce food waste, enjoy moments not things, avoid over packaging, shop locally and create DIY gifts. Although these steps may seem small, collectively they have a huge impact on preserving resources and tackling climate change.

My favourite item on the list is to enjoy moments not things. I can’t remember what I received as a gift five years ago, but I remember it was the first special Christmas with my husband Nick. Last Christmas I have happy memories of being nearly four months pregnant. I spent several relaxing days reading by the fire, walking on the beach, feeling Aidan’s first kicks and indulging a few pregnant cravings!

It feels natural to reduce food waste, avoid packaging and shop locally for food during the the year and I want to commit to these values at Christmas. Some of the measures I’m taking for the challenge include: reusing old wrapping paper; avoiding over packaged items such as Christmas crackers, planning each meal in advance to eliminate food waste, and not buying excess items, such as Christmas cake, that we don’t particularly like but feel compelled to have for the festive season.

The only task from the list which I find difficult is making DIY gifts as I’m not naturally drawn to crafting. With looking after Aidan, writing and campaigning, choosing to make Christmas gifts could defeat my purpose of creating a relaxing family Christmas! As an alternative, I have chosen ethically sourced gifts and charity gift cards.

Reflecting on the project, I question if it is really a ‘challenge’ or actually a positive release from some of the superficial pressures of consumerism. The commercial build up to the festive season loudly promotes a time of shopping, frenzied gift buying and hectic plans. Yet for most of us, our ideal Christmas involves time (ideally peaceful!) with loved ones, space to relax, good music and delicious food. Whether we choose to celebrate the original meaning of Christmas or not, we can all benefit from time and space for our own spiritual reflection.

By eliminating the unnecessary, we can enjoy a joyful Christmas, mindful of what is really important: our family, friends and the health of our beautiful planet.

Owning our Fear

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A couple of nights ago, listening to Aidan snore lightly in his cot, my mind began to race with fears about the future. I was tired, hoping for an early night before a busy weekend, yet sleep eluded me.

Dramatic images of extreme weather, food shortages and chaos flooded my mind. My stomach churned with anxiety. Worst of all, I knew my worries wouldn’t be gone in the morning or be eased by nighttime tricks such as camomile tea.

I was so restless, I woke up my poor husband! Luckily he was sympathetic. As an environmental lawyer, he has had to confront similar concerns himself whilst battling with climate change legislation. Sleepily he admitted that he had hidden his own fears from me as he didn’t want to scare me!

He gave me a useful piece of advice which I have been thinking about over the weekend; the trick of owning our fear. This practice involves fully confronting our fears in order to learn from them and move towards positive action, as taught by the influential environmental activist and author, Joanna Macy. Naomi Klein also urges us to face our fears in her persuasive book about climate change, politics and parenthood – This Changes Everything.

Sleep finally won and when I was allowed to sleep until almost 7.30 (a great result!) I did feel a bit better. I’m sure I will have many more restless nights but facing my worries has made me even more determined to become actively involved. I want to help avoid those dramatic images from being realised.

I have been researching campaigns during Aidan’s naps this week and I keep uncovering exciting ideas. To pick one example from many, I discovered a Australian group called 1million women (onemillionwomen.com.au) which encourages women to campaign for action on climate change. I was really impressed by this model for inspiring action.

Please let me know if you have ideas or campaigns which we could discuss here. Let’s truly own our climate fears and move towards positive action!

Love the planet…divest!

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Divest London held an exciting meeting at SOAS University on Thursday night to plan London’s action for the Global Divestment day on February 14. I’ve just joined the group and it was a brilliant evening!

The divestment movement aims to remove the fossil fuel industry’s social license. Here’s what we all need to know: fossil fuel corporations have five times more oil, coal and gas in reserve than we can safely burn. The overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree that we have to keep 80% of these fossil fuels in the ground to avoid disastrous climate change. These figures are staggering. By encouraging public institutions to withdraw their money from the industry, we make a moral statement and encourage investment in the renewables sector.

The ‘gofossilfree’ divestment campaign is raising public awareness across the globe and gaining serious momentum. Universities, places of worship, councils and pension funds have all been targeted and there have been real victories: Glasgow University is the first European university to divest, Oxford is the first UK council to vote to divest and KLP, Norway’s largest pension fund, is divesting from coal. Go to gofossilfree.org for more information and updates. Sign up!

Back to London, the meeting on Thursday was packed when I arrived. Energy surged around the room as we planned an exciting day of action. It was heartening to be surrounded by so many intelligent, committed people all campaigning for change.

I missed evening cuddles with Aidan but on a personal note, no matter what I do, fate always seems to send me to the vicinity of Russell Square for life-changing events! I met my husband at the College of Law on Store street, my first job was at a literary agency in Bloomsbury, Aidan was born at University College Hospital and now I find myself in SOAS campaigning for his future. Clearly my involvement is meant to be!

Babyproofing the planet

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My son is five and a half months old and loves his playmat. Every day I watch him exploring on his tummy, reaching his hands forward, preparing to crawl. He is able to move quite far by rolling, shuffling and hanging onto the edge of his mat!

Parenting books remind me to babyproof our home without delay. On a recent shopping trip, I spotted an overwhelming selection of products designed to make my home safer. Tackling our flat (which is on the first and second floor of a victorian building) is not going to be easy, so I decide to take one task a week. This week I’ve ordered plug socket covers. Next week, the exciting task of moving our cleaning products into a higher cupboard awaits me. Then we really need to think about the various stairs in our flat!

Childproofing our home, I found myself thinking of the story about a man who builds his house on the sand. The image of his house being washed away, which I remembered from my own childhood, flashed in my mind. We can proof, guard and pad our homes into submission but without working to tackle climate change, it seems we are effectively building our homes on the sand.

Of course, I do intend to make our flat as safe as possible for our soon to be crawling baby! However above all I’m inspired to get involved with some of the exciting environmental campaigns happening at the moment, such as the fossil free divestment campaign.

We have bigger tasks ahead to make our homes and our children’s futures safer. It may be hard to get our heads around childproofing the planet (especially when we’re so sleep deprived!) but our protective instincts are strong and we can use this strength to take action. I look forward to getting involved and to really starting my babyproofing!