By: Chrissy Bowers
DOES the news depress you: polluted rivers, plastic-ridden oceans, pesticide-soaked fields, seasons of droughts and floods?
Well, imagine instead a healthier, cleaner existence and being able to catch a glimpse of a bright future in which the ‘right’ environmental choices have been made.
This is the aim of Swale Friends of the Earth through the staging of a series of summer events culminating in a large-scale, Faversham-based exhibition on June 23/24 under the title Lovely World, which will feature a wide range of activities the public can get involved in.
Demonstrating that technologies and policies already in development have the potential to transform and improve the quality of the environment and people’s lives, the scope of Lovely World will cover energy, transport, building, food, employment, leisure, and clothing and design.
It will feature films, music, art, installations, poetry, talks and much more. The event – to be staged at the Alexander Centre - will provide broad creative opportunities for numerous groups and projects which will be able to use every inch of the town- centre venue, its garden and the road in front.
Participants so far include the UK’s largest manufacturer of grain source heat pumps, Severn Trent water services, the Low Carbon materials company, Kent School of Architecture and Planning, Cyclechic Community Cycling, Wasted Kitchen, Ripple Farm, the Library of Things, Trees for Farms, the Good Funeral Guide, Faversham and Villages Refugees
Solidarity Group, Pop-Up Clothes Swap, Bumblebee Conservation, Langdon Garden and alternatives to plastic.
There will be some electric vehicles at the event and maybe a hydrogen- powered bus.
“Intelligent and imaginative investments made in these areas will change the world for the better,” said spokesman Martin Collins. “Lovely World will provide an antidote to the dystopian outlook which tends to preoccupy us all, as if a better future has appeared in front of our eyes for just a short time.
"Hardly anybody now doubts that a climate crisis is upon us and yet still, globally and nationally, government of any kind has yet to demonstrate the leadership needed to avert changes catastrophic for life on Earth. Swale FoE have campaigned for years on the dangers of climate disruption; this summer we‘re taking a different approach and highlighting the benefits of technologies and actions which will conserve resources and improve our lives.”
A world rescued from the climate crisis will be a better place to live in and raise children, Mr Collins said.
“Through Lovely World we want to provide some reasons to be cheerful and give an insight to the future which can be ours; something to find out about and very much
worth working for. Visitors will see that a lovely world is possible and achievable, get a better understanding of how we can reach it and hopefully will be inspired to take action to help it come about.”
The plan is for a ‘walk-through experience’, he added, “Where visitors see, feel and learn what a lovely world there could be when the right choices are made. We hope you’ll be able to join us in June.”
For more information and/or to discuss any aspect of the event enterprise phone 07922 998349 or email info@swalefoe.org.
