Small is beautiful – Why local action matters
Parish Council’s Guest Environmental Contributor: Small is beautiful – Why local action matters
Things are moving fast in the UK climate change space.
News of floods and extreme weather events are pouring in regularly, prompting even the climate-sceptics to admit that we may need prepare better for climate impacts.
While many on Woldingham’s high ground may be safe from the worst of the flooding, we’ll all have experienced the disruption to travel from closed roads, potholes, trees falling and transport cancellations. There are secondary impacts, too, such as the impact on crop yields and food prices [1]. A reminder, perhaps to donate when you can to the local food bank [2].
Some of us may also be noticing the impact on our beautiful gardens and woodland – unseasonably warm or cool weather changing the cycles of native plants and ecosystems. As stated on the Surrey council website, 11% of our native species have gone extinct in the last few decades. Our penchant for perfect lawns and pesticides can’t be helping.
But as the UK climate impacts are worsening, the collective response is mobilised. The start of 2025 sees the Climate and Nature Bill have its second reading in Parliament, while the UK Health Security Agency has established a new centre for Climate and Health Security – in recognition of need to support the mental and physical health impacts of climate disruption.
Educational institutions too, are beginning to mobilise, with the Department for Education (2022) [3] requiring all schools to have a Climate Action Plan in place this year, overseen by a school sustainability lead. This includes plans for enhanced climate education, sustainable school infrastructure, natural outdoor education spaces, and a focus on green careers. I am happy to say that the head of Woodlea is on the case, having attended my training for school sustainability leads late last year.
Localisation is here
Perhaps it is time also for the Woldingham community to mobilise – taking climate adaptation and mitigation seriously. Not only because the Woldingham carbon footprint is greater than the national averages (as is our capacity to reduce it), but also because strong communities are more resilient. The Covid pandemic and resulting disruption to our way of life gave us a flavour of the need for communities to pull together in tough times. If we are less reliant on global supply chains for our goods, we will be less impacted when these are disrupted.
Localisation also helps reduce our carbon footprint. We can start small – the fruit and veg swap What’s App group was a great example of how a local sharing economy can both reduce our food air-miles and reduce waste.
But perhaps this goes deeper than carbon mitigation and adaptation. Last year I attended an event in Surrey council offices hosted by Zero Carbon Guildford – entitled ‘Small is Beautiful’ celebrating 50 years since the publication of ‘Economics As If People Mattered’ by Caterham resident, E.F. Shumacher.
Like the book, the event’s speakers challenged the received wisdom that ‘bigger is better’ and instead, espoused the importance of local economies for climate both adaptation and resilience. Having personally been raised in a culture that implied international travel, and goods were glamourous and local travel and goods were dull – it profoundly changed the way I think about community.
Community is connection. A lack of meaningful community, or social disconnection is what many people in climate circles now cite as the root cause of the ‘polycrisis’ including climate change, biodiversity loss, culture wars, proliferation of A.I and social media harms, loneliness, and geopolitical instability. The individualistic western psyche promoting ‘consumption’ and ‘competition’ is making us dissatisfied and restless. We’ve disconnected from each other and nature, and even from ourselves.
The world is changing and so must we. Perhaps the best thing we can do is to reconnect with each other and truly care for our beautiful surroundings, whilst repeating the wellbeing and health benefits of both [4].
If you have any ideas for community projects or want to learn more about climate psychology visit www.climatedpsych.com or email info@climatedpsych.com.
Dr Louise Edgington, Chartered Educational Psychologist and specialist in Wellbeing in Climate Education
Footnotes:
[1] UK’s wet winter ‘pushing up’ food prices as costs near record high – Farming UK News
[2] Caterham Foodbank | Helping Local People in Crisis
[4] White, M. P., Alcock, I., Grellier, J., Wheeler, B. W., Hartig, T., Warber, S. L., … & Fleming, L. E. (2019). Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44097-3