Words by Smiley Team
This autumn the UK government will publish the Comprehensive Spending Review detailing the sectors and areas where they aim to spend money. Friends Of The Earth are - in response - are calling for people to get involved with their week of action.
As well as lobbying MPs and forging allies across the movement, Friends of the Earth want to stage a "first" for the network by running a national week of action in October aimed at building support within communities for a green and fair recovery.
The week of action - running between October 5-11th is an opportunity for Friends of the Earth their Climate Action groups and create awareness around the fact the planet is at a crossroads. Originally, Friends of the Earth were going to encourage groups to erect signposts across the UK that point - quite literally - to a greener and fairer world. However, the recent increase in Covid-19 cases across the UK makes it challenging for this to go ahead in real life. Insted, the organisation is encouraging people to get involved online.
Instead of creating a physical signpost, people are being encouraged to create a virtual one to which people can contribute their ideas, or update their physical signpost at home with contributions and share photos on social media.
Friends of the Earth are also encouraging people to host an online discussion at the end of the week for those who have engaged with the signpost and social media activity to talk over the ideas that have been collected.
All participating groups will be encouraged to launch the action during the collective 5-11 October week of action, but the organisation understands that some people may have limited spare time and do not want this to be a barrier to getting involved.
The Friends of the Earth have also designed a leaflet to distribute to neighbours (in a socially distanced, safe way) by to help educate on what is meant by a fair and green recovery plan. Just download and print off the template, customise and hand out.
To find out more about the Friends of the Earth and getting involved in their network, head to takeclimateaction.uk.
Smiley Movement caught up with Friends Of The Earth as part of our Smiley Talks: Climate event. You can catch up with this by heading to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn-4a2k0a4o
