A Beacon of Hope in the Environment
There’s no doubt about it, the environment is currently in global crisis; natural disasters are on the rise and we are bombarded with media snapshots of environmental damage and scientific reports on the state of the environment daily.
Environmental issues have rightly ploughed their way to the forefront of political discussion and the current government has been driven to pledge to be the first to “leave the environment in a better state than they found it” but in a world of negativity many organisations are arguing, it is all come too late.
Last week we were reading an article in National Geographic magazine on rising sea levels and the morbid reality that no matter what we change now, in 2100 most of the cities along the east coast of the US will be under water. These reports and articles are important but if all hope is lost, if it’s all too late, then where is the incentive to change?
Then amidst the deeply distressing messages, a friend sent me a link.
The link was about an African-led project called The Great Green Wall. Heralded as “one of the most ambitious projects of our time”, The Great Green Wall is a plan to grow an 8000km natural structure across the entire width of Africa.
The goals of this project extend well beyond being a bold response to climate change “in an area where temperatures are rising faster than anywhere else on earth”. It is a project which is growing food for the millions of hungry as well as giving them sustainable green jobs through which to build flourishing communities.
This project has the potential to quite literally grow peace out of war and grow love out of hate and as the last line of their powerful video states become “a symbol of hope that humanity can overcome its greatest threats”.
I suppose there will naturally be the usual questions about cause and effect. Could change on this scale have detrimental effects on for example local ecosystems, biodiversity and the like? But with the natural world deteriorating at an alarming rate and the levels of the poverty and hunger in this region at an all time high, surely there is enough reason here for the soothsayers and scaremongers to put down their pitchforks and give it a go.
I guess overall what this project has shown us here at Studio 31, is that however important the horror stories are (and sadly these are essential instruments of change), there are also a million stories of hope to mirror them. There are a million people making small changes; reusing, recycling, reclaiming. There are households buying bamboo toothbrushes or growing veg in their own allotments. There are businesses using vegetable inks and recycled paper. There are projects large and small like Get Diggin’ It, National Park City and a hundred more driving change. There is beginning to be a more universal recognition of this global crisis and growing from a single seed amongst the doom and gloom are also leaves of hope.
I refuse to believe all is lost. It is visionary, global and innovative thinking that can pave the way for change now and projects like these spark hope into the hearts of millions not only in Africa but around the globe.
Photo by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos