Sadly, as many of us are aware, humans are causing extensive damage to our planet. We know that greenhouse gases are causing the Earth to warm, so far by a mean increase of 1.15C. And plastic waste levels continue to rise, taking centuries to degrade. Many of us feel very anxious about this. It’s easy to feel that, whatever we do or try to do individually, things will continue to get worse and that this is out of our, or anyone else’s control.
Last year, through the Open University, we both took part in Carbon Literacy training. Run by The Carbon Literacy Project, the aim of this training is to make people more aware of what’s happening and why, and using this knowledge to help us talk about it with others. The OU are offering all students and staff the opportunity to receive this training. See herefor more information, and hereto find out what people are saying about it.
For Mental Health Awareness Week, we decided to write a little bit about what we learned, and some positive things that are happening in the world around environmental issues, to show that it’s not all doom and gloom. The aim isn’t to pretend that everything is ok, but to empower you to do what you can, to influence who you can, and to provide some encouragement that we are not alone in wanting to get things done to solve the climate crisis.
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