Climate Crisis Response - How To Engage Destroyers and Cultivators

Give the shops with staff the leg work of removing all one-use plastic packaging, they'll soon insist their suppliers return to jars and card.

Having read your strategy with great interest and admiration, can I ask that you extend the measures you plan to take to beyond public buildings and spaces in the county.  It will be crucial to make an announcement that outlines the climate change response expected from businesses, communities, families and individuals. 

The sun is going down on all of us, everyone needs to  participate in the  Clean Up

And that the adaptation plan will be implemented with immediate effect.   Let people know that the county plans to take an environmental audit of what is sold, produced and bought in the county. 

We might have to eat stuff that doesn't look familiar but  tastes delicious

From vegetables that look amazing but are a little bit more work to prepare than convenience foods

I would be willing to help compile a comprehensive questionnaire (to be analysed by survey monkey) to calculate what damaging processes and substances are routinely in the supply chain so that they can be addressed. The declaration of a climate crisis means that we all understand that there is not time to further research or debate the extent of how harmful one or other practice is. This is the opportunity we have to stop them and let the land, air and water quality recover and wildlife, soil and plants and our own health detox too. 
Industrial Agriculture's Effect On Soil

And bother to plant stuff ourselves

How are we going to finance the transition to good practice and the education and building of a nutritional, org anic, local food system and lifestyle? Some can be put straight onto the international shop chains. For example if you outlaw the sale of one-use plastics, the shops themselves will no longer be able to sell them, they will have to manage their stock accordingly. Secondly, there is national money that will have to be made available. 68 million euro has been paid for carbon emission credits and estimated further 60 million in fines for not meeting 2020 targets. That 60 million is going to have to be made available for the climate crisis, one way or the other, so let it be spent on actually reducing our carbon emissions, the clean up required and the system change to help biodiversity and society recover…instead of on fines. 

And learn to stop and smell the roses

It is possible as Bulgaria is going to be food independent by 2020, through investing in farmers –that’s how we know what’s possible.

The following are the immediate steps that will work: 

1)   Remove industrial chemicals from water and food - pesticides, hormones, fluoride, chlorine and microplastics from our water.

2)   Ban the sale of non medical goods in pharmacies and supermarkets that use chemicals and animal testing. 

3)   Address rural transport and open up school buses to the public.

4)   Guarantee accommodation stability, through HAPLighten the cost on landlords to do structural work and then cap rents.

5)    Yes, the council must stop spraying and join the Conscious Cup Campaign but so must every one else. Make it compulsory.

Engage the old: Reduce property tax in line with home owners’ efforts to turn their gardens into habitats (uncultivated areas, no chemicals, flowering shrubs, bug hotels, stocked bird tables. Leave room for the badgers, foxes, deer, rabbits, mink, squirrels and mice too etc), use of biodegradable products, their diet and switching to renewable energy. 

Engage the young – To ecologically audit their homes – Every child from 5 onwards is taught how plants need pollination to fruit and reproduce and that trees create oxygen and soak up carbon. They know how to survey soil acidity and flaura/fauna by 12 years old. As incentive, they can be offered a monthly pass to the swimming pool, or one-off ticket to the cinema or a field day with a local well-known coach etc and points for themselves and their school to be commended as a whole.  

Engage the army at the barracks in organizing the clean up operation – as the military are the only organization organized enough to plan something county-wide. They are trained in tracing and addressing chemical and biological warfare attacks. These are transferable skills when you’re mapping a trail of destruction like biodiversity loss and planning to put a stop to it. 

6)    Welcome all concerns and project suggestions. Really own this strategy and chance to make Kilkenny known as ‘The County To Start The Clean Up’. 

7)   Educate via the Farmers Journal, regarding ‘organic’ as a) natural substances that will biodegrade and b) food grown without use of chemicals in growing, cleaning, ripening or preservation to extend shelf life etc.  

8)   Disallow the sale of one-use plastics in shops. Call for all eateries to join the Conscious Cup Campaign. Educate the public on plastic and food waste. 

9)   Support farmers with the sale of produce on condition they stop spraying. Insist that Woodies and Glanbia etc stop selling Round Up, Bug Kill and creosote etc and Lidl and Centra and co. make space to sell more unsprayed vegetables by taking out long life, chemically produced and processed foods – E numbers and unfamiliar ingredients are chemicals usually. 

10) Incentivize community gardens/allotments at industrial estates and companies. 

11) Call for the immediate cessation of chemical use in all industries. Promote the re-introduction of water and natural cleaning products.

12) Part finance the changes through the most environmentally unsound businesses in the county: Fines for destructive practices or requirements to sponsor clean ups of water sources or both. 

These twelve actions can be implemented with immediate effect. They correlate to the points 7,17, 25, 30, 41, 47, 59, 60, 70, 86, 93 and 100 in the report I forwarded last week: '100 actionable measures', which you will find attached.