Category: Environment

Reconnecting With Wildlife

This month the Climate Change Collective are writing about how to make fresh connections with nature or simply reawaken an appreciation of the world around us. The topic is discussed in the newest lead post by A Sustainably Simple Life.

Check out the brilliant article here:

Reconnecting with Nature and Self by Disconnecting from the World

The post talks about a personal experience of attending a retreat. I can totally relate to the idea that withdrawing from the hustle and bustle of daily life and spending time in the countryside is always beneficial.

Take Aways

Reading about being immersed with nature, this article reminded me how important it is to spend time with animals and plants. It is so easy to disconnect from the natural world and so making time to appreciate it is vital.

People who don’t recognise the importance of climate change are often busy working and caught up in urban life. Taking time away from all of that can draw attention to the fragility and value of wildlife and give us all moments to think about what is actually important.

As weather systems change and garden birds are becoming less visible, there is real value in ensuring you give yourself self care and allow yourself to rebuild a relationship with nature.

Thank you for popping by. Please check out the Climate Change Collective article linked above and drop a comment about how you plan to reconnect with nature.

Take A Breath And Think – Poem

Today I have written a poem which is based on gut feelings. I want to encourage everyone to take a breath and use their voices at a time where sensible, level voices need to be heard over angry ones.

Take a breath and ponder,

All the crazy in the world.

The last time I thought about it,

My fingers and toes curled.

But think about it nonetheless

And try and take it in.

The world needs clever thinkers

To ensure changes can begin.

A lot of things are thoughtless

Knee jerk reactions cause most wars.

Pollution comes from thoughtlessness

Meanwhile Antarctic ice shelves thaw.

As anger drives decisions

And feelings drive divide.

You need to take a moment

And carefully decide.

Will you sit and watch the chaos

And allow for things to spin?

Or will you make a choice to fight

To turn a corner with a grin?

Only clever thinking

Will help to steady the divisions.

Political clear thinking

And some really tough decisions.

So vote for those who care

About society at large.

Don’t allow the ignorants

To easily take charge.

Think about the climate

As it steadily decays.

Use you voice and thinking

To make a difference. Don’t delay.

Thank you for reading my ‘Take a breath and think’ poem. For more of my poetry check out my Terrible Turmoil poem. Please also consider following my blog for similar future content.

Food Security – A Climate Problem

One topic that we haven’t discussed so far in our Climate Change Collective posts is food security. It is an important subject which affects everybody so it is great to see this month’s lead post tackle this delicate matter.

As the world’s population grows and temperatures increase, suffering harvests are starting to have a massive impact on food supplies and will continue to create shortages in future.

Caroline (@environlineblog) has produced a very thorough and useful article about many of the ways that food security is altering, largely due to climate change.

My Thoughts

I live in an agricultural area and come from a family of arable farmers. The Fenland region of East Anglia is covered in Peat which makes it a brilliant landscape for growing many different vegetables and fruits.

The land was reclaimed from marshland in the 1800s by a network of drainage ditches originally designed by Dutch engineer Vermuyden. Lots of market towns and villages are now scattered across this beautiful but flat countryside.

Sadly, with most of it being very close to sea level, predictions state that much of the Fens is likely to be returned to wetland by 2050. This will greatly affect the availability of food for lots of European countries. One third of the UK’s harvested food comes from here.

If the area is drowned once more, this will impact on wheat production as well as the provision of: carrots, onions, potatoes, sugar beat, lettuce, oil seed rape, peas, strawberries and many other types of fresh produce.

The impact climate change has on food security and how to help

In A Nutshell

Caroline has put together various suggestions of how to do your bit in helping us secure our food supplies. Environmentally, considering the food miles of products we buy can help to reduce pollution as well as supporting local farmers.

Of course, if our farmland shrinks or is continually flooded, we may have to consider growing different crops. Reducing the amount of livestock we rear could also make room for more arable fields.

The Climate Change Collective is a group of bloggers who write one lead post every month linked to global warming and sustainability. The rest of us then create link posts, such as this article.

For one of my previous articles in the group, check out Warmer Weather – What’s not to like?. Please take time to check out Caroline’s article and drop some comments with your views on this matter.