LAUNTON ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIETY

HOME SWEET HOME . . .

What do you think of as home? To some people home is ‘where they hang their hat’ to others it may be ‘where their heart is’. I must admit that I personally fall into the latter. Therein lies my quandary.

My house may be in one place, but my heart is in two places, the ‘land of my birth’ (USA) and the ‘land of my fathers’ (UK). Geographically they are 4,000 miles apart, but matters of the heart are not measured in miles. I am fortunate to have loved ones in both continents and feel love for both places because they are both a part of the same place . . . Planet Earth. To many it may be just earth, but to me it is HOME.

Planet Earth is my home, it is your home, it is home to all of us rich or poor. We are not doing a very good job in taking care of Mother Nature. According to the International Displacement Monitoring Centre between 2008 and 2016 each year an average of 21.5 million people lost their homes due to Climate Chaos. And that number is rising.

In 2022 that figure reached a record 32.6 million. Floods, storms, wildfires and drought are forcing people out of their homes, not only in poorer countries, but in richer countries as well. Sadly, that number is bound to rise. Global Warming must be taken seriously! What can we do?

As a people, we can follow the lead of The United Nations through their COP (Conference of the Parties) gatherings and work with governments and agencies to try and limit the rise in Global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Individually, we can try to reduce our personal impact on the environment by working with Mother Nature and using efficiently but not abusing our valuable, and scarce, natural resources. We can change our mind set from ‘Bigger is Better’ to ‘Less is More’.

To learn more, sign up for LES at launtonenvironmentalsociety@gmail.com. Or, if possible, come along our next Meeting of the Parties gathering. If you haven’t given much thought to the environment lately or want to share some ideas that you have found useful, to pick up a few ideas or to just spent an hour with like-minded people a ‘mop’ might be just what you need. MOP VIII is on 18 July at 7:30 PM in The Parish Hall. Together, and with the help of biodiversity, we CAN change things around.

Submitted by Ed Hamill from LES