< Back Shropshire residents out in force in London for “The Big One For Biodiversity” March on 22nd April Fiona Morgan 22 Apr 2023 Members of SSCA joined in the March calling on the Government to protect Nature and take action on climate. On Saturday 22 April (Earth Day) people from across Shropshire and the UK attended the “The Big One For Biodiversity” March in Westminster calling on the Government to take meaningful climate action and halt the biodiversity crisis affecting the UK’s wildlife. The event was organised by Extinction Rebellion in partnership with over 200 environmental and social justice groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Fair Trade Foundation, Stop Ecocide, Keep Britain Tidy and faith groups. It was estimated that 65,000 people attended the March including children and their families to show their concern about the current crises, many of whom made some amazing creative art works to demonstrate their love and appreciation of nature. Previous Next

< Back The Marches Real Food and Farming Conference: 15th - 16th September Jane Cullen 16 Sept 2023 Our reflections on this fantastic ground breaking local food conference The Conference held at Partridge Farm, near Bishop’s Castle, was a greatly enjoyable day and showed many exciting projects to a new audience – if you are at all interested in your food, where it comes from, how it is grown, how far it has travelled to get to you – you know all the issues - here were practical, pragmatic and possible models that deserve to be known, and adopted, much more widely. The dung beetle safari, led by Claire Whittle who is a farm veterinary surgeon specialising in conservation medicine and regenerative agriculture, demonstrated how dung beetles not only make the structure of the soil much better but rather amazingly also reduce parasite organs in livestock. Claire’s enthusiasm and knowledge lit up those on safari. Another eye opener was the Johnson-Su Reactor which Kate Gatacre opened and described. Although I could not build one in my small urban garden anyone with a bit more space could: all you need is an old pallet, some lengths of drainpipe, wire, fleece, sawdust, green waste and some space. The beautiful, crumbly, clean- smelling compost which was dug out was absolutely perfect. Having experience as a producer I went to the session on Market Linkage, which followed the path between local producers Tish Dockerty and Jan Morgan-Birtles, who trade regularly at the ‘Local to Ludlow’ Market, and a Food Hub in Birmingham, via Slow Food and the Open Food Network. It’s good to see technology making these links quick and practical - for the good of all. Lizzie and Jane Hulton-Harrop also gave an excellent presentation as they charted their move into Regenerative Farming. Pollardine Farm’s soil fertility is improving, rapidly responding to changes in their practice – the first one being a really good rest for the land. There’s much more to hear about this project and the careful research behind the changes, look out for our forthcoming video of the climate and Nature related work being done at Pollardine Farm - which will be available soon. Previous Next

< Back SSCA's Objection to the North West Relief Road Design Amendments Jane Cullen 10 Mar 2023 Our response to Shropshire Council's NWRR consultation On behalf of South Shropshire Climate Action we are registering our objection to the North West Relief Road, in all its iterations. The planning application will clearly lead to irreversible loss of highly valuable greenfield sites and habitats at a time when nature and many different species are already severely challenged. The NWRR creates further massive issues including the risks to Shrewsbury's water supply, the likelihood of overspend and the resulting financial impact on the whole of the county which will suffer further cuts to other budgets (a county already undergoing £50 million cuts), and the negation of local democracy for example in the overriding of Town Council objections including Shrewsbury Town Council itself. Planning Application 21/00924/EIA embodies a profound contradiction of all current climate mitigation, the contradiction of Shropshire Council's recently announced support for the Climate and Ecology Bill as well as all the work that is going on in the county to educate and help communities face the climate emergency. We also note that the application is presented without scientific analysis of the carbon impact of the lifetime of the road and so appears to be a 'vanity project' running counter to the interests of Shrewsbury and the whole county of Shropshire. Planning Application 21/00924/EIA should be rejected on multiple counts, many not even touched on in this brief objection such as health, public transport and air pollution. Submitted on behalf of South Shropshire Climate Action. Previous Next

< Back SSCA's reflections on COP27, 6th-20th November 2022, Egypt Fiona Morgan 1 Dec 2022 From global to local action The Global Picture Delegates at COP27 in Egypt last month reached a historic deal to set up a “loss and damage” fund to compensate those countries, primarily in the Global South, who have done the least to cause climate breakdown but who are being impacted the most by the damage of increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather patterns and conditions. However, this significant and long overdue commitment is completely undermined by the ongoing lack of agreement of all governments to phase down ALL fossil fuels. Without this, the efforts to stay below 1.5C will be beyond our reach, given that global tipping points are now being reached. To put this in perspective, back in May 1992 when the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was formed, 178 member states unanimously agreed to bring CO2 emissions down to 1990 levels of 354 parts per million (ppm) by 2000. Since then annual emissions have climbed 65% and now stand at 420 ppm (levels stood at 280 ppm in the pre-industrial era). And so the fight for climate justice and climate stability goes on. According to Carbon Brief "Tuvalu also became the first country in the world to endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative , which aims to trigger a global fossil-fuel phase-out through the establishment of an international treaty, in a similar way to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons .". You can endorse this campaign as an organisation or individual via the above weblink. We shall watch this development with interest. Meanwhile in Shropshire….We Clanged for COP27 On Saturday 12th November environmental groups across Shropshire Clanged for COP27 as part of a Global Day of Action organised by the Global Justice Coalition to raise the alarm about the Climate and Ecological Emergency. Gatherings took place in Wem, Market Drayton and Ironbridge where drums and saucepans were clanged and bells were rung to demand world leaders take climate action and provide financial support to the global south for the climate related damage they are facing. Previous Next