Easy green and eco friendly actions and articles.

I don't feel like this year has got off to a good start in terms of the environment, politics, or feeling particularly hopeful, but there's always something we can do, so here are some of them and some positive things to read too,

This year I'm following along with Spiral Garden's #52climatesolutions.  Every week they're posting one simple, practical, do-able thing you can do to start to tackle climate change, check them out on Instagram if you want to take part. 

Sign Wendy from Moral Fibres petition, asking the UK government to ban microplastic glitter on greetings cards. 

#teamtrees is a fundraiser set up by a youtuber (I'm too old to know who, sorry!) with a goal to raise enough to plant 20 million trees by the end of 2019.  They've raised enough to plant 21+million trees so far and are still taking donations - you can donate trees here, they cost $1 each.

Sign Greenpeace's petition asking the UK government to act on climate change emergency now! 

Positive News have loads of great articles up at the moment as part of their 'Hope 100' project, go and have a look if you need something positive and soothing to read. 

I love Lindsay's post on individual eco-friendly actions, where they're good, where they fall short and what to do next - just what I needed to read!

My local council is taking part in Plastic-free-February, and is asking residents to sign up for weekly emails with plastic-reduction tips - is your local council doing anything similar this month? 

I don't think anyone's missed the terrible and heartbreaking bushfires in Australia this year.  If you're looking to donate try these charities... 

• Australia's Red Cross Disaster relief and recovery fund help support evacuation centres and recovery programmes for the affected communities.
• Local fire services, like the NSW Rural Fire Service and Queensland Fire Service, are accepting donations directly.
• The Salvation Army Australia also have a disaster appeal - they deliver crucial support to local communities as the fires rip through the country.
• Find a Bed has been set up for families who have lost their homes. It connects people with Australians and landlords from abroad with property in affected areas.
• WIRES Wildlife Rescue need funding, and more volunteers to help save the animals. The charity is already asking Aussies to help make pouches for small marsupials.
•  Victorian Farmers Federation was set up to help farmers whose land has been destroyed in the fire.
• The CVS Foundation of volunteer firefighters is a team of volunteers who have been working non-stop, putting their lives at risk to help save people, animals and homes.
• (I've taken this list from online, and checked the links and organisations myself, but please double check before donating)
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Easy green actions and articles.

Here are a few easy online actions and interesting articles to make the world a better, greener, happier, place, 

Firstly, if you couldn't get to the big Extinction Rebellion protests in London this week, and have some pennies to spare, you can donate to fund UK protests, legal fees for those who have been arrested during protests or to fund international actions. 

I love the Frack Free Nanas - they're awesome!  Watch them here and follow them on Twitter. 

Use Friends of the Earth's online tool to find out how eco friendly your local area is.  Just pop your postcode in to see what's good and what needs work where you live.

Ask your local council to make a 'climate action plan' - use Friend's of the Earth's tool to do so.

"We’re facing a climate emergency – the greatest ever threat to our existence and a disaster for the natural world.  A comprehensive climate action plan is long overdue. But instead our government keeps making climate-wrecking decisions – like supporting airport expansion and funding the fossil fuel industry overseas.  That's why we urgently need local authorities to lead the way where the government isn’t – and create their own ambitious local climate action plans."

Sign Greenpeace's petition asking advertisers to stop showing us ads from oil companies.

Yey!  Lots of trees are being planted worldwide!

1000 homes in London are set to be heated by recycling warm air from the Underground.

If you like eco-friendly blogs, check out Kezzie's where she's blogging weekly about eco things.

The NHS is going to reduce it's single use plastic consumption by a million pieces a year, which is a pretty good start!

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Easy green actions and articles.

Here are a few easy online actions and interesting articles to make the world a better, greener, happier, place, 

Can we plant a trillion trees to fight climate change?  I hope so! 

Sign Friends of the Earth's petition asking to double tree cover in the UK.

Sign WWF's petition asking the world's governments to act on plastic pollution.

Morrisons is introducing a plastic free fruit and veg section, which will save 3 tonnes of plastic packaging per week!

It's Plastic free July this month!  Head to their website if you're looking for support to stop using so much plastic.  I'm using the challenge as an excuse to post any unrecyclable plastic packaging I use this month back to it's producer.

The good old National Trust is going to sell all it's shares in fossil fuels and invest in green and eco companies instead. 

'I have watched and silently wept this spring as trees ready for nesting, forget me nots in full bloom, and buttercups about to burst forth have all been clipped and ripped, torn and shredded. And in their place? Nothing. Under the rules of good husbandry, this sort of pruning and weeding makes your plot look perfect and well-ordered, the soil pleasingly flat and tickled. But I am going to take my feminist rage at this word, husbandry, and rip it up like it has done to the wild things. Enough of this obsession with control and order'

I love this article from Alys Fowler in the Guardian, about how to weed in a wildlife-friendly way.

Here's 7 things you can do to help stop insect decline. 

A Greenpeace study has found plastic in every single river in the UK, ask your MP to do something about it! 

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Easy green actions and articles.

Here are a few easy online actions and interesting articles to make the world a better, greener, happier, place, 

Edinburgh has become the first city in the UK to have traffic-free days!  I love this idea and hope it spreads to other cities and towns. 

This is an interesting article, if the government actually does something - like put it's money and power behind eco initiatives, the UK could cut it's greenhouse gas emissions to ZERO by 2050 - yes please! 

How can I write one of these blog posts without mentioning Extinction Rebellion.  Oh my gosh, I may have wept a little bit watching the action taking place in the UK and all over the world to stop a climate catastrophe.  You can check out their website for what's happening now and to find your local group. 

Don't forget to donate to Extinction Rebellion if you can.  There's nowt doing in my town in terms of an XR group or protests, and I couldn't get to London for the big protests, the least I can do is give a donation.

Over the Easter bank holiday Britain went 90 hours without using electricity from coal - woop woop.

It is still not too late to act. It will take a far-reaching vision, it will take courage, it will take fierce, fierce determination to act now, to lay the foundations where we may not know all the details about how to shape the ceiling. In other words, it will take cathedral thinking. I ask you to please wake up and make changes required possible.

5 awesome quotes from Greta Thunberg.

Sign Friends of the Earth's petition asking the government to adopt their plan to stop a climate emergency.  See their 6 part plan here. 

And finally, the UK government has become the first in the world to declare an environment and climate emergency - and I'm really interested to see what'll happen next. 

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Easy green actions and articles.

Here are a few easy online actions and interesting articles to make the world a better, greener, happier, place, 

Sign Friends of the Earth's petition, asking the government to do all it can to stop climate change before it's too late.

'Nature is the ultimate carbon capture and storage machine. The fastest and cheapest way for Britain to suck carbon out the air would be to double tree cover, restore our peatlands and wetlands, restore fish populations in the North Sea to their historic levels, and end the chemical warfare in the countryside that has led to the catastrophic collapse of insect and bird populations'

Let's all plant some more trees, ok?

Do you have some old (gently worn) bras to get rid of?  Send them to Smalls for All so they can be given to women in Africa who would otherwise have to go without.

Check out Greenpeace's plastic league table to see where your favourite supermarket ranks.

Some great, not-scary articles from Positive News this month - like Britain's endangered wildlife has made a come back, European agriculture could go green and still feed the whole continent, and a UK wide plastic bread bag recycling scheme has been launched. 

'Most of all, I wish Marie Kondo would just say stop! Stop buying all this stuff. The only solution to our waste crisis is to halt the consumerism clogging our landfills, polluting our oceans and overcrowding our homes. Because what would really spark joy would be a world that isn’t overflowing with garbage.'

Do you know what would spark more joy?  Buying less crap. Indeed. 

On the same note, check out Lindsay's post - 6 places to declutter to that aren't the charity shop.

The EU has voted to ban all single use plastics by 2021!

Every Wednesday this amazing group of women stand in protest of the fracking taking place in Lancashire.  Earthquakes have been reported near fracking sites in the UK, so sign this petition to show your support for a fracking ban.  

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Easy green actions and articles.

Here are a few easy online actions and interesting articles to make the world a better, greener, happier, place, 

IKEA are launching a vegan hotdog, and I'm excited for it! 

This little cow darling ran away from the abattoir and swam away to live on an island!  

Friends of the Earth's newest campaign is a challenge to go plastic free on Fridays.  Which I think would be interesting, but also totally hard! 

Glastonbury Festival is planning on banning plastic bottles from next year. 

The government has promised to phase out coal mines by 2025, so it would be stupid to give planning permission for a new one now, in Durham, wouldn't it??  Sign this petition to make sure it doesn't happen.  

Women are an unstoppable force for climate action! 

Los Angeles-based ‘gangsta gardener’ and community leader Ron Finley is determined to redefine ‘gangsta’ as being about building thriving communities, not machismo.  "Gardening is gangsta: Mother Nature is gangsta. Being educated, creative and self-sustaining is gangsta. That whole concept was about turning a negative into a positive. If you want to be gangsta about anything, make it about building your community, sharing knowledge."

via positivenews.com

I love this piece about 'Gangsta Gardener' Ron Finley from Positive News.  

Scarily, the world has lost a third of it's quality arable land in the last 30 years - but there's still time to reverse the decline and scientists have some good ideas how to do it - but I think eating more organic food and planting more trees would definitely help too!

Sign 1010's petition asking the government to make sure all new buildings have solar installed as standard. 

I REALLY want one of these all in one vertical planters and worm composters, but sadly don't currently have a spare £300 lying about!  There are a few DIY versions about on the internet, and I'm trying to work out a way to make my own plastic-free version.

If you have a few spare pennies and are feeling kind would you please think about donating to this Crowdfunder appeal to create a vegan hub in my little hometown - it would be lovely if you did. 

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