Two new members!! · Has2BGreen

Two new members!!

Please welcome

and

Hi to both of you and welcome to this strange group. The aim of the group is to provide background data on the Climate Crisis so that you can speak with an informed voice on the subject.

The next step is to look at how the crisis is affecting each of us in our different parts of the world.

Since I am in the UK I am doing a lot of work to identify how the climate crisis is affectring us in the 6th wealthiest country and, for me in Hampshire, how it affects us in one of the wealthiest counties.

I am finding that the effects are all around us. And after five heatwaves over the summer we are seeing changes to our countryside, to our local farmers and to our local wildlife. Changes that are, in some cases, irreversable.

As a result of this work I am now contacting local action groups to see how we can identify actions that are impactful.

I have two in my sights. The first is that we are running out of water during our summer months. Not only for household use but also for the trees in our towns. The idea of needing to "water" our trees is alein to us. But without doing this, we will lose our Silver Birches, our Beach trees and maybe even our Oak trees.

My suggestion is that we build new reservoirs to capture the increased winter rainfall and store it until we need it during our long dry spells in the summer. We don't have the money, reservoirs are not on the local council's radar (especially for trees!) and we do not have the land. If we do not do this we will lose the trees that provide cooling in the summer, the benefits of their air purification and carbon sequestration services.

We are planting new trees, beacuse we have been told this is a good idea, but we are not doing enough to protect them during the early years and many are dying. So I have put forward the idea of Eco-Guardians, allocating groups of trees to nearby residents.

As water supplies dwindle, the cost of water is increasing. Do we supply these guardians with payments to cover their costs?

Alongside this, I have been on tours of our local council owned plots of land and found a number of fruit trees already laden with ripe fruit. Some are suffering from lack of water, but many are dropping fruit on the ground as people are not sure if they have the right to pick it.

The Eco-Guardians could alert local food banks to the ripe fruit, and organise a harvest day to ensure they do not go to waste.

To do this we need better maps to identify each tree and allocate them to each guardian. To address this I am creating a GIS - a geogrpahical Information System - a database linked to a map. This will record the exact location of each tree and the name of the eco-guardian manging the tree. I am creating a management guide for each species of tree, how much water they need and when. If pruning is required, when this should be carried out etc. The idea will be to run this past people with more experience than I have to make sure the guidance is correct, complete and relevant.

So there is a lot going on and I have yet to work out how all of this makes it back into our group here in Has2BGreen so the ideas can be shared widely.

I guess this is one way!

So welcome

@Sophia Garcia

and

@Kendra Cigdem

- please feel free to look at the lessons in the classroom. Comment and give feedback - share ideas - everything is welcome!

The images are for the Apple tree entry on the species database.

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Two new members!!