Amble: walking for nature
Appreciate: celebrating nature
Action: for nature

It is exactly 100 miles from here to Glasgow, where the UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) on 31 October–12 November 2021.

I plan to walk about 17 miles on Monday 6th September around the roads and footpaths of the Eden Wild Goose area. I will be noticing and celebrating the wildlife that I experience. Would you like to add your nature appreciation miles to mine that day (you can walk anywhere) so we can collectively clock up the miles as if we were walking to Glasgow? Anyone can ‘amble/walk/run’ on 6th or 7th September and add their miles.
 
Please let me know if you can register your nature appreciation walk;
To and from shopping, employment or school (a parent and child counts as two)
Your daily exercise, outside or inside however short,
A decision to take a nature focused walk that day,
Or you could join me for part of my walk (a double back)
or walk to meet me at one of my three stopping points (see the maps below).
Every walk counts.
Link to the maps for the walk route.
 

Let me know what you can do and let’s see if we can collectively walk as far as we can towards the 100 miles. It can be any distance at all, from a few miles to a few steps. The aim is to notice, appreciate and celebrate nature, bugs, skies, birds, bees, wildflowers, trees, smells, touch, sounds and silence. Even if you cannot go outside, what can you see from your window? As you walk - remember that world leaders will be making decisions at COP26 that will have an effect on all you see in nature.
 
You could send a picture from your phone to me or a description of what you saw, a poem or a drawing and I will add it to the Eden Wild Goose Facebook page during the following days.  A second picture with a Wave of Hope hand (see below) would enhance the message. If you send me a picture you are giving me permission to use it on our social media platforms.
 
Eden Wild Goose believes that the best way to be active in protecting nature is through our own nature Curiosity leading to Appreciation and Celebration leading to Action and Opportunity.  So, let’s walk on 5th and 6th September and appreciate what we see.
                                                          
Graeme Skinner
1228 561358   
graemevicarofeden@gmail.com   
Facebook ‘Eden Wild Goose’

Further Action and more information

Nature Appreciation -for children and the young at heart
On your walk
How many different leaf shapes can you see? Do the feel different?
How many birds can you see? Can you make a sound like them?
How many different insects can you see? Do some of them fly?
Which colours do you see? Will anything you see become a different color later this year?

Add your Crack the Crisis ‘Wave of Hope’ hand
Print or copy the hand below and decorate it however you can. Take selfie with it. You could put it behind some wildlife or in front of a nature view. Then place it in your window as a display
Link to a picture of the hand.
 

Crack the Crisis

Website
With the world facing challenges such as Covid, injustice, climate change and nature crisis, UK decision-makers have an opportunity to demonstrate their leadership at home and abroad. That is why 70 organisations from across the UK are coming together in this new coalition to advocate for a better future for people and planet. They represent 12 million people in UK, so your own affiliations to one of these organisations may already be linking you to Crack the Crisis.
Link to the full document of the ‘Policy asks’ to the UK Government for COP26

A shorter summary of ‘Policy asks’

Crack the Covid Crisis - by sharing vaccine doses fairly and ensuring everyone everywhere has access to jabs, tests and treatments. Healthcare heroes should get the funding and equipment they need to ensure everyone has access to health services and we are protected from future pandemics.

Crack the Injustice Crisis - by creating good, green jobs and levelling up at home and abroad. We should drop the debt, keep our aid promises and create new digital taxes. Funding is needed so that countries can resource urgent priorities such as girls’ education, unpaid care, ending violence against women and girls, preventing famine and malnutrition and investing in the local leadership of women, people of colour, disabled people and other marginalised communities.

Crack the Nature Crisis - by setting strict targets in domestic and international law to halt the decline of nature by 2030, with effective protection for at least 30% of the land and seas to help ensure the targets are met and reduce our ecological footprint overseas through sustainable company supply chains.

Crack the Climate Crisis - by spearheading a just and green global recovery based on delivering the promised $100bn per year and more to those hit hardest, as a critical step to global climate justice – protecting 1.5 degrees through clean energy, sustainable and equitable land and water use, ending fossil fuels and reducing land use emissions.

Add your voice
I support several of the groups who are part of The Crack the Crisis movement. You may well be represented by their involvement too. As part of my message to the COP 26 Conference I signed this petition posted by Tearfund. ‘Tearfund is a Christian charity which partners with churches in more than 50 of the world’s poorest countries. We tackle poverty and injustice through sustainable development, by responding to disasters and challenging injustice. We believe an end to extreme poverty is possible.’
Tearfund petition

Consider what else you can do
At some point during the COP Conference, we will hold an evening Eden Wild Goose meeting called ‘The Climate is Changing: What on earth can I do?’ This will be a practical talk and discussion on way we can reduce our own carbon footprint.

Link to This page as a document 

Please pass this around family and friends
On behalf of Eden Wild Goose Nature - Thank you.