Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. We’ll be displaying green hearts in our windows next to our key worker rainbows to show that we want a cleaner, greener future. You can join in with a simple heart cut out of green paper, or get more creative. We’ll be sharing some ideas for crafts in this blog, as well as other resources for families to get involved in campaigning from home this week.
How to make spotty hearts with younger children
(ages 1-5)
1) Fingerprint Heart
Using different shades of green paint or ink, add lots of fingerprints to your heart shape. Lovely messy fun!
Top Tip: have a clean damp cloth ready to wipe little green fingers or you’ll have spotty green sofas too!
2) Cotton bud heart
Dip a cotton bud into green paint. Cover your heart shape in dotty spotty splodges!
3) Sparkly heart
Use some craft glue to stick lots of green sequins to your heart shape and make your window twinkle.
4) Bubble wrap heart
Paint an old bit of bubble wrap green. While the paint is still wet, press it gently onto your paper. Now cut out a lovely bubbly heart.
5) Hole punch heart
Use a hole punch to make lots of little circles using scraps of green paper. Glue them onto your whole holey-heart.
Pop your creations in your windows, take a photo and upload it to social media. Use the hashtags #EarthDay2020 and #GreenHeart. Don’t forget to tag us @PrestonAction and the Climate Coalition @TheCCoalition.
Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. We’ll be displaying green hearts in our windows next to our key worker rainbows to show that we want a cleaner, greener future. You can join in with a simple heart cut out of green paper, or get more creative. We’ll be sharing some ideas for crafts in this blog, as well as other resources for families to get involved in campaigning from home this week.
30 minute+ activity, suitable for ages 10 and up
You will need:
Green felt
Scissors
Needle and thread
Ribbon
Beads, buttons, sequins or other decorative materials
Step 1
Use your felt to cut out a small green heart.
Step 2
Using a needle and thread, attach something exciting to the bottom of your heart. We used part of an old broken necklace. You could use a chunky bead or button.
Step 3
Cut a second, larger heart out of felt. We used a different shade of green for interest. The more hearts you cut out, the longer your decoration will be.
Step 4
Use your needle and thread to attach a loop of ribbon to the large heart.
Step 5
Decorate your hearts. We added little green beads to make a sparkly boarder for the larger heart and two chunky beads onto the smaller heart. If you’re not confident with a needle, you could stick on sequins with any craft glue.
Step 6
Sew your hearts together, leaving a long piece of thread between so that they dangle when you hang them in your window.
Don’t forget to add the #HopefulHeart and #EarthDay2020 hashtags and upload a photo of your artwork to twitter. Tag us in @PrestonAction.
Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. We’ll be displaying green hearts in our windows next to our key worker rainbows to show that we want a cleaner, greener future. You can join in with a simple heart cut out of green paper, or get more creative. We’ll be sharing some ideas for crafts in this blog, as well as other resources for families to get involved in campaigning from home this week.
30 minute+ activity, suitable for anyone able to safely wield scissors
You will need:
Card
Pencil
Green tissue or crepe paper in several shades
Scissors or craft knife
Glue stick or other craft glue
Step 1
Fold your card in half and cut a half-heart shape.
Step 2
Open out your heart shape and draw a smaller heart a few centimetres inside it.
Step 3
Create your design. Draw sets of parallel lines at random inside the heart.
Top Tip: use a pencil so that you can rub out and make changes as you go, or download our template.
What will you get this Valentine’s Day? Flowers? Chocolates? Perhaps you’ll be able to spend time with someone close to you. A romantic sunset meal or stroll through a beautiful park?
Maybe you are one of many who feel resentful about all the “love in the air” on February the 14th. Perhaps you celebrate ‘Galentine’s Day’ instead by spending time with the galls. Or the men’s equivalent: ‘Malentine’s Day’… is this getting a little out of hand?
Here at Climate Action Preston we’d like to suggest an alternative. By all means share the love with your nearest and dearest (although we think it’s important to do this every day of the year), but perhaps this year you could consider where all those romantic gifts and experiences we mentioned actually come from. Those flowers? The ingredients for that box of chocolates? The sunset? The park? Mother Nature is responsible for all of it.
The planet shows us a lot of love. Unfortunately, it’s a bit unrequited. How often do we stop to consider what nature provides for us? And how often do we stop to consider what we should be giving back to nature?
Humankind has been exploiting Planet Earth. Our species have been the abusive and neglectful partner. This doesn’t apply across the board, some humans have made it their goal to love and celebrate our wonderful planet and some humans haven’t the means to make much of a difference either way. But some humans, the ones with vast wealth and influence, have caused unimaginable harm.
Now we’re facing the consequences. Flooding, fires, droughts, rising seas, deadly air, animals disappearing forever… Our planet is trying to tell us something. She’s doing her best to support us, provide for us and fill our home with beauty but she’s beginning to struggle. Soon global temperatures will have risen to the point where the crops we grow for food can’t survive. And that’s just one of the likely consequences of climate change.
So here’s our proposal for this Valentine’s Day. Ditch the consumerism. Instead:
Take a moment to really look at what the planet has given you. Take the time to appreciate the natural world all around you today and feel the love.
Consider what you could do to reciprocate. Write to your MP to ask how they are tackling climate change, sign a petition, do a bit of your own research on the issues. Have a go at taking the bus, cooking a vegetarian meal or look into switching to a renewable energy provider for your home. There’s even a Climate Strike event on Valentine’s Day which anyone can come to. There’s so much you can do to love the planet you call home. Just pick one thing to get started.
Get in touch and tell us what you did to love the planet. You can tweet your love story and tag us @PrestonAction, comment on this blog post or email us at climateactionpreston@gmail.com to share how you showed you care.
We’re really looking forward to hearing your stories.
Star Wars fan? Read on, but beware of spoilers for the new movie.
I saw Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in the cinema last week. I’m not sure how environmentally friendly cinemas are compared to matching films at home (probably not very), but it was a rare treat and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Not long into the film I found myself thinking, “This is a direct metaphor for the fight against climate change.”
Let me explain.
The First Order/Empire is secretly building a ginormous fleet of star ships, each with the power to destroy an entire planet. They have masses of power, wealth and resources which they’ve gained through exploitation and general evilness. There is a small but committed band of rag-tag rebels who oppose the First Order, despite the insurmountable nature of this terrifying enemy.
Towards the end of the film, the rebels take their tiny fleet of ships, follow Jedi warrior Rey and go to engage the huge First Order fleet in battle. It’s a desperate last stand and they are almost certain to fail, but they do it because it’s right. They also send out the Millennium Falcon to try and round up any other people to come and help them.
It’s looking grim. No one has come. They’re losing hope. Everyone is going to die. Then, at the last moment (of course) hundreds and thousands of ships appear in the sky, led by the Falcon. There’s an exchange between two of the First Order soldiers that goes:
General Pryde: Where did they get all these fighter crafts? They have no navy. First Order Officer: It’s not a navy, sir. It’s just people.
A theme through the movie is how there are more ordinary people who care about what’s right than there are evil overlords. The ordinary people just need to work together, and have some hope, and they’ll succeed.
Poe Dameron: My friends, I’m sorry, I thought we had a shot. There’s just too many of them. Lando Calrissian: But there are more of us, Poe. There are more of us.
And of course the rebels do succeed. Just like the Hobbits succeed against Sauron and the Districts succeed against the Capitol and Harry succeeds against Voldermort and the Pevency children succeed against the White Witch*. These inspiring figureheads unite the ordinary people to fight in the face of terrifying odds. These aren’t “just people” at all; they’re heroes.
Climate change is happening because we’re burning fossil fuels. Those who control big, wealthy, powerful fossil fuel companies are putting themselves above the future survival of our planet. They want to keep their money and power. Our whole economy is built on burning fossil fuels and exploiting those in the developing world. But there are more of us, individuals who care, than there are of them, CEOs and world leaders who don’t.
As long as we band together and stay hopeful, we can win.
We don’t even need to pick up a lightsaber/sword/bow and arrow/wand to fight this war. We can fight with our social media accounts, our lifestyle choices, our spending power, our conversations, protests, strikes, petitions. We can fight by planting trees, cycling instead of driving, cutting down on meat, writing to our MPs, telling everyone else about climate change and investing our money differently…
And we can win.
The enemy might seem insurmountable, but there are more of us. And each of us is a hero.
Plus, role over Rey Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi: we have Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough.
*I’m referencing The Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point (and it’s not just that I’m a nerd…).
Climate Action Preston 