POST #7 PATHWAYS TO A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
One of my beliefs about environmental activism is summed up in this cartoon by Brenna Quinlan – it’s the belief that by working together as a community we can help each other accomplish so much more. Implicit in this representation is the idea that by working together and sharing what we do, we co-create a culture – a new set of norms that inform and shape further action.
It takes a long time to achieve this in any society and our small band of RE-B environmental activists have only just begun to engage with our community. Working with the concerns and interests that the community itself has. Its not through doing one single action but rather engaging in a number of actions and activities that appeal to different members of the community. Its also about building on relationships.
Earlier this week myself and James from our RE-B group of environmental activists were invited to give a short presentation about our work at the annual general meeting of the Betchworth and Buckland Society. The meeting was attended by about 30 people and they listened intently to what we had to say and then threw themselves into a short discussion about what mattered to them in their local environment. The questions we posed surface a number of interesting ideas that we can feed into our own planning for future projects.
One of my beliefs about environmental activism is summed up in this cartoon by Brenna Quinlan – it’s the belief that by working together as a community we can help each other accomplish so much more. Implicit in this representation is the idea that by working together and sharing what we do, we co-create a culture – a new set of norms that inform and shape further action.
It takes a long time to achieve this in any society and our small band of RE-B environmental activists have only just begun to engage with our community. Working with the concerns and interests that the community itself has. Its not through doing one single action but rather engaging in a number of actions and activities that appeal to different members of the community. Its also about building on relationships.
Earlier this week myself and James from our RE-B group of environmental activists were invited to give a short presentation about our work at the annual general meeting of the Betchworth and Buckland Society. The meeting was attended by about 30 people and they listened intently to what we had to say and then threw themselves into a short discussion about what mattered to them in their local environment. The questions we posed surface a number of interesting ideas that we can feed into our own planning for future projects.
Sharing what we do is an important part of showing others that we are actively engaging in and delivering our own mission by working for nature, the environment and sustainability. The second thing we did this week was publish the third issue of RE-B magazine which describes our activities and celebrates the ways in which we are working with our community. The magazine was shared with Surrey Wildlife Trust, who were impressed with our B-Line mini meadow community project. They have now invited me to contribute to one of their community action workshops – and this is how we connect what we are doing to what other bigger communities are doing. When we started our magazine I argued that it would be good vehicle for disseminating our work beyond our small community and this is the first example of us succeeding in this way.
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