Simple Ways You Can Help the Ocean

The final episode of Blue Planet II contained unflinching examples of the effects humans are having on ocean wildlife, and many of us were moved by David Attenborough's call to action. BBC Earth shared a list of things we can do:

1. Bring your own bag.
2. Carry reusable water bottles and coffee cups.
3. Avoid using plastic straws and cutlery.
4. Join a beach clean.
5. Choose skincare without microbeads.
6. Skip plastic bags for fruit and veg.
7. Only buy sustainable fish.

We can also campaign. In the budget the government said they would investigate the possibility of a tax on single-use plastic. The plastic bag charge led to an 80% reduction in the use of plastic bags. Extending this to plastic straws, cutlery and other waste would help reduce the amount entering rivers and seas. This petition calls for such a tax. Here are three more petitions about plastic, from Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and one asking Tesco to ban disposable plastic straws.

 

Big Garden Birdwatch
Sat 27th - Mon 29th January

No fewer than 500,000 people took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch last year, counting birds to help the RSPB monitor bird populations in the UK. If you'd like to join in this year, you can find out more here.

What is... the Anthropocene?

When scientists look at rocks, they define periods in pre-history according to changes which are visible across the globe. For example the event that wiped out the dinosaurs is marked by a different band of rock above which many species disappear from the fossil record, and a new geological epoch begins.  

For the last 11,700 years, we have been in the Holocene epoch. However, humans are having such a major impact on the environment that the effects will be visible in the rocks that are currently being formed. Discussions are underway to decide whether to officially change to a new epoch called the Anthropocene, from the Ancient Greek word for human.


How to Recycling Your Christmas Tree

If you have a brown bin, you can put out a Christmas tree with your bin on Tuesday 9th January. Don't put it in the bin as it will be tricky to get out. If you're not a garden waste customer, you can drop your tree off at one of the designated locations. Here's a link to the council's full guide to Christmas recycling.

Perhaps in the future people might rent Christmas trees instead of buying them - there's a farm near Cheltenham which does just that. After Christmas, people return their rooted Christmas tree to continue growing until next year.
 

Play Streets

Every week, a street in Bristol becomes a space for children to play. It is closed to cars for a couple of hours every Tuesday, becoming a temporary playground. The kids spend less time stuck indoors, and have the opportunity to run around and play with their friends.

Bristol made a simple change that allowed this idea to thrive: instead of having to fill out multiple forms, streets can apply just once to hold regular sessions. More than 40 UK authorities now use the same system.

Play streets could be a cheap and easy way to reduce childhood obesity. Government guidelines say children should get 60 minutes of exercise per day. An experiment in Ghent, Belgium, compared 19 play streets with normal streets for 8 days, fitting children with sensors. It found children in play streets did about 15 minutes more moderate to vigorous exercise each day.


Learn Something New in 2018

There are many free courses available online if you'd like to expand your understanding of sustainability issues this year.

Coursera courses include: Act on Climate: Steps to Individual, Community, and Political Action, Greening the Economy: Lessons from Scandinavia, Our Earth's Future.

Courses from Future Learn include: Water for the people, Introduction to Sustainability and Development, Big Data and the Environment, Earth Observation from Space.

Courses from EdX include:  Climate change: the science, Making Sense of Climate Science Denial, Essential Tools for the Low Carbon Economy,
 

Is 2017 the year veganism went mainstream

Want to take action on climate change, but not sure where to start? You might like to sign up to the Carbon Crush challenge from 10:10.