We have all watched in awe as David Attenborough has shown us the wonders of the natural world in programmes such as Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Wild Isles but in recent years he has increasingly highlighted the risks of Climate Change and how its effects are now placing many creatures at risk of extinction. And who will forget the vast swathes of plastic shown in Blue Planet that are increasingly polluting the oceans and the effect that this has on nature?

 

Every day we also hear that climate change is already having major negative influences on our lives, increasing the likelihoods of more droughts (and the current hose pipe ban), floods, high temperatures and how this is indirectly increasing the cost of food in the shops.

 

A “Climate Emergency” has been declared in many countries and more locally by Devon County and Teignbridge District Councils. Everybody is aware of this issue today, but the question is always – “What can we do about it?”.

 

Well, we hope to be able to bring some ideas and share them through the Climate and Sustainability link on Hennock Parish Council’s web page. There will be sections focusing on the local wildlife and promoting nature, interesting talks, activities and presentations arranged. We’ll try to share some ideas about what we can all do in our daily lives about the problem as well as sharing interesting news and links to pages/websites that have ideas and updates on the subject. We will also bring to your attention any consultations that we are aware are taking place so you can contribute to them if you wish.

 

It's easy to think that what we do by ourselves can only have a limited effect but if we all start to do something, then the effect can be huge. If every individual in Britain picked up and recycled just one piece of plastic/nylon a day, that they found lying in the street, this would mean that almost 25 billion pieces of plastic a year would no longer be at risk of polluting the sea, being ingested by wildlife and ultimately ourselves in the future.

 

We hope you will find this interesting and helpful and over the next few weeks articles and entries will start to appear in this section so do keep an eye open for them!