​DorsetCAN Newsletter 5 ~ June 2021

June has been wild (though we'd like it wilder) with news and developments on the climate and nature emergency. Heartbreakingly, every other farm seems to have lost its swallows this year, but your efforts across the county to cut carbon emissions and restore and regenerate wildlife are astonishing and life-affirming. Read on for campaigns to join, local ideas and examples to follow, events to attend and help organise, suggestions to consider and your dose of climate news (inter)nationally. This Newsletter brings DorsetCAN news and updates (blue), relevant campaigns (green) (some led by DorsetCAN, some by other organisations), plus (Inter)National News (red)  and case studies (teal) with ideas which we think could be an inspiration for other towns and villages in the county. There's also Funding, Ideas and Inspiration (earthy brown), forthcoming events (in tasteful black) and magnificent purple stuff (yup).
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Do look out for us on Facebook and Twitter (links below) and send in news items. If you’re part of a group that should be listed on our website, please let us know that (or anything else) at: DorsetCAN.news@gmail.com

If you're moved by anything you read or see here to join in, visit the Teams page on our website and contact the coordinator for information on how you can help/take part.

We have a dream for Dorset: a Dorset with clean rivers, fantastic public transport, chemical free fields, carbon neutral homes for everyone, not just the rich, regenerating wildlife, locally-grown food, resilient town and village communities AND the Great Dorset Hedge. If you share it, please sign up to it.

*** Dorset CAN news and updates***

Vision, Mission, Aims: We're meeting to discuss and agree Dorset CAN's vision, mission and aims at 7pm on Monday 28th June - TOMORROW. This is important and we'll be taking our recommendations to the wider membership. But if you're interested and want to be involved in these discussions, contact DorsetCAN for details of Monday's meeting and the joining instructions.
Dorset CAN Land Use Team:
The Team has decided to compile a database of all Dorset farms, large and small, operating to good ecological practice (GEP !) i.e organic, permaculture, agroforestry, scrubland grazing, etc. This will link into the Lifelines and other projects.
The Team also has the idea of looking at mapping areas (ultimately the whole of Dorset) to create a skeleton strategy for where planting and other biodiversity interventions would be most beneficial. 

If you're interested in either project, have skills or time to help, or just want to know more, please contact the Land Use Team.
For news about developments with this and the other DorsetCAN teams (energy, media, transport, advocacy, events, facilitation...) please see the Teams Update page. 
DorsetCAN goes social
Virtually social:  We're live on Facebook and Twitter. Please find us, follow us, like us, join us.
Really social: You're invited to The Dorset CAN Summer Social. Fri 9th July 11am - 3pm ~ Hawkers Farm, Stour Provost, SP8 5LZ. Huge thanks in advance to Jenny Morisetti (Facilitation Team member) for hosting this event. Info: www.hawkersfarm.org
Booking essential. We need to manage numbers :)

Have fun and get to know each other in person! This is a great chance to meet new people from across Dorset who share your desire to address the Climate & Ecological Emergency and build resilient communities.
All Dorset CAN members & supporters and families are invited. Please bring your own food and drink (COVID restrictions) plus optional musical instruments and games/ activities. If you can, come early (from 10am) to help set up.

Main event:
11 - 12 noon Walking tour of Hawkers Farm and local woods
12:00 - 12:30pm and 1.30-2.30: Surprise rural activities
12:30 - 1:30pm Lunch & socialising.  2:30-3:00pm Free time
Disabled access ~ Toilets ~ Large covered outside space, so it will go ahead even if it rains. Pets: Sorry, no dogs. Please confirm you're coming by email to Rob ASAP. Tell him:  ​No. of people and where you live if you can share transport ​

​Update on the Dorset Local Plan - DorsetCAN meet the planners...

The draft Local Plan for the whole of Dorset, published in January, has aroused concern across the county because of the sheer scale of proposed development – over 39,000 new houses between now and 2038, new industrial estates, roads and other infrastructure.  In Dorset CAN’s formal response, submitted in March, we pointed to the impact which this would have on the landscape and natural resources of the County, encroaching on the Green Belt and the AONB and making heavy use of greenfield land, including a proposed estate of 3,500 homes on the north side of Dorchester. We called on Dorset Council to ‘Re-think the Plan’, cut the number of new houses to 20,000, avoid encroachment on the Green Belt, avoid heavy use of greenfield land, and use more ‘brownfield’ land in the towns.  

On 14 June, a team from Dorset CAN had a Zoom meeting with Hilary Jordan, Service Manager for Spatial Planning and Terry Sneller, Strategic Planning Manager.  This meeting was candid and friendly. The officers advised that, in their experience, we could not claim 'exceptional circumstances' to get dispensation from central government guidelines, but said there might be room for reduction in the number of houses, in the face of public reaction and of continuing studies by the Environment Agency and others. So, we plan to launch a vigorous campaign in late July, following a meeting on 13th July of county-level and local organisations.  If you or your organisation want to take part in the 13 July meeting or in the campaign, please contact Giles Watts at wattsgft@gmail.com. (Read the full DorsetCAN Advocacy Team statement and see the W. Dorset Environmental Alliance's briefing paper to Chris Loder MP on the Local Plan.)

In the same vein, Michael Dower of DorsetCAN will shortly be meeting Anthony Littlechild, the Dorset Council officer mainly responsible for the drafting of the Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy and Action Plan, in order to understand the way ahead in amending, approving and implementing those documents. Watch this space for news...

What can I do?

​1) Become a business climate leader
The government has launched a new UK Business Climate Hub to help small businesses take practical steps to cut their emissions in half by 2030 and to net zero by 2050. The hub has practical tools, resources and advice about emissions and developing a plan to tackle them. See details here. 
If you make the commitment, please let us know - then, in time, we will add a businesses page on our website and list Dorset businesses who have made the pledge.
2) Join the GIKI Challenge (scroll down)

3) Start or join a local project
If you're interested in energy, transport, wildlife, talking to Dorset/BCP Council, social events, media... contact the coordinator of any of the DorsetCAN teams listed here. 

4) Join DorsetCAN as a founder member and make your voice heard and your opinions count. Sign up here. 

*** CAMPAIGNS ***

*** CAMPAIGN by Power for People***

Help get the Local Electricity Bill passed (YES we can!)

The Local Electricity Bill would give small-scale renewable energy a massive boost by empowering communities to sell their energy directly to local people. It's been featured in previous issues of this newsletter. There's a high-profile, 90-minute Parliamentary debate titled ‘Enabling Community Energy’ on Thursday 1st July and they're asking everyone to write to their MP to ask them to attend the debate and speak in favour. Here's the link to their 'Email your MP' page.

*** CAMPAIGN by GIKI ***

Help set the Guinness World Record for climate action + cut your own carbon footprint

We've featured GIKI.earth before. They work with communities, individuals and organisations to help people measure and reduce their carbon footprint and live more sustainably. If you don't know them, find out more. 
 
Now they're trying to set a new Guinness World Record for the most people pledging climate action in one month. They need 140,001 people to commit to take climate action between 18th June and 17th July.
 
This is a month-long effort and it's doubly important: winning the Guinness Record would get great publicity AND, in the process, thousands of people will commit to reducing their carbon footprint - making more of a difference together in a month than we can hope to make on our own in a lifetime. Go to zero.giki.earth, sign in or join (it's free), then go to the you planner page and commit to a new step. 

*** CAMPAIGN by Dorset CAN***

Want to get things going locally? 

Open Greener Homes

This September, homes across Dorset will open to showcase ways of living greener. Open Greener Homes 25/26 Sept & 2/3 Oct: is a Dorset-wide event where homes open to visitors. Some involve technical approaches, with heat pumps, solar panels, ventilation systems; or electric cars/ charging points. Some are retrofits where insulation, renewable energy or heating systems have cut fuel bills. Others are low tech: reducing waste, saving rainwater, home-made double glazing, growing vegetables.

The event is coordinated by DorsetCAN and involves Turn Lyme Green, Transition Town Bridport, Planet Purbeck, Planet Shaftesbury, Green Martinstown, Beaminster Area ECO Group (see below) and other communities.

Could you host an open day yourself?
Sam Wilberforce from DorsetCAN is calling for new hosts to talk about their journey to sustainable living: "If you've lowered your carbon footprint and are willing to share your experience, please email us. Your house doesn't have to be perfect or highly sophisticated, as long as you can inspire others to cut their resource use. And if you know someone who might be interested we are happy to talk to them".
(In/near Shaftesbury, contact Planet Shaftesbury. The scheme also covers churches, schools and public buildings.
Why not follow the Beaminster Plan?
9th June saw the first meeting of the Beaminster ECO Committee, which brings together the Town Council and many other interests in the town to shape and pursue a programme of action focused on climate change, enrichment of wildlife and the long-term resilience of the community.

This meeting was the climax of two years of debate in the town, following the Town Council’s declaration of climate emergency, following which Beaminster Area Eco Group persuaded the Town Council to set up a multi-sector Working Group to analyse challenges facing the town.

The Group's report recommended the creation of the new ECO Committee, which has representatives from over 20 organisations in the town and is supported by a growing ECO Network of townspeople. 

The Committee will receive proposals for action from individuals and groups who are keen to make things happen, and will sustain the momentum of an overall programme, with pump-priming finance from the Town Council and active search for external funds. 
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​For details, email Michael Dower
  • In September, communities across the UK will join together for Great Big Green Week - a national week of events celebrating action on climate change. Our Open Greener Homes event (above) is timed to start during Great Big Green Week, as is Shaftesbury's Great Big Tree Festival 23-26th September: The Tree Festival includes events celebrating local mature trees, the tree planting that took place last winter, and the tree planting yet to come. Find out more and join in with the Tree Festival here.

*** TWO CAMPAIGNS by Greenpeace***

30x30 campaign  
Greenpeace has launched its 30 x 30 campaign – to turn 30% of our oceans into Marine Protected Areas by 2030. This will allow those communities dependent on fishing and fish to survive and prosper and allow marine life in our oceans to recover. It’s a gradual approach that targets industrial fishing, respects the rights of local and indigenous communities and is ambitious and urgent enough to give nearly all species a chance to regenerate.
​For more information, watch the video below.
Campaign for action on plastic recycling
Recently, Greenpeace reported that British plastic waste is being dumped and burned in Turkey, following their report on what really happens to our recycling. Since then, Turkey has banned most UK plastic waste imports from 2nd July. Greenpeace are calling on politicians across the political spectrum to pledge to show support for proper government action to fix our plastic crisis. They want you to you email your MP and ask them to support proper plastic action. Visit their 'Email your MP' page.