Early September saw Alan Pinder and I in Nottingham taking part in the Local FoE Groups annual conference. As always, this was a stimulating event with two and a half full days of presentations, seminars, workshops and networking opportunities. You will find full details of all the events on the National FoE website well worth a visit. The campaign focus was on the ‘Big Ask’ Climate Change campaign which is now increasing momentum to try and ensure that a Climate Change bill is included in this year’s Queen’s speech. We have undertaken, with all other local groups, to lobby our MPs to ask them to support this objective. There was however, a great deal of coverage of other campaigns of interest to us including Nuclear power, Marinet, GMOs, airports and local planning - all of which we will need to keep in our sights for the coming year.

Apart from the campaigns, the key messages for local groups this year were to broaden our appeal and to develop solutions. Broadening our appeal means moving outside our traditional ‘comfort zone’ to reach people who would normally not be interested in environmental matters or, worse, be antagonistic towards them. Since our major concern is climate change we will only be able to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions by getting everyone to play a part; hence the need to broaden our audience. The focus on solutions results from the belief that, at last, the message about the terrible effects of Climate Change are now getting through to the general public but that because the messages are so negative, many people are ignoring them out of a sense of helplessness (what can one person do when change on a global level is needed) or are becoming so depressed that they are becoming apathetic and even, in several documented cases amongst young people, suicidal. We must therefore temper the bad news with some positive messages about what we are able to do at a personal, local, and National level to either combat the level of carbon dioxide emissions or make sensible preparations for the result of widespread climate change.

Both these approaches will pose tremendous challenges for us and we shall need to think of innovative ways in which we can take these ideas forward. Please therefore, help your Committee by thinking ‘out of the box’ and coming up with ideas – it doesn’t matter how big, small or outlandish they are, on how we can extend our reach and suggest viable solutions which will be meaningful to S. Gloustershire residents.

Denise Thompson

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