The last week of September was Scotland’s Climate Week, part of the Let’s Do Net Zero campaign, which includes our Climate Action Programme. The East Lothian Climate Hub and our network of climate action organistions had a very busy week indeed! The week finished with a visit from Acting Climate Action Minister Alasdair Allan and the distribution of nine sophisticated Community Heat Team Kit Bags to communities across East Lothian. Check out below what else we were up to!
‘Wilding’ Film
Pix in the Stix screened ‘Wilding’ in East Linton, a film based on the bestselling book by Isabella Tree on Knepp Estate’s experience of wilding their land. Over 120 people from across East Lothian attended and came away inspired as well as with many questions for us all to explore together, such as how farming can integrate natural habitats into agricultural landscapes whilst maintaining productivity.
Collective Intelligence: effective group working
Philip Revell from Sustaining Dunbar led participants in exploring group structures and processes and how we can all make the most of the collective intelligence we all hold within our communities across East Lothian. Within the context of climate and nature emergencies and limited resources, making the most of our collective experience, knowledge, skills and connections is more important than ever. As a follow up, this is a great Introduction to Sociocracy for All guide on how to create distributed leadership within groups, to structure meetings and inclusive ways of making decisions, which can lead to shared responsibility and using the collective intelligence within any group. The Climate Hub will be reflecting on how these principles can be applied in our local context to strengthen connections within our East Lothian Climate Action Network.
Climate activism, good mental health and collective wellbeing
An excellent session was held by Marie Adams for ELCAN and Climate Hub members on how to manage climate anxiety both for ourselves, and for our communities. We learnt that climate anxiety is a proportionate response to the climate emergency but that if not managed can be unhelpful (leading to either fight, flight or freeze responses), and resulting in burn out. To work at our best in the world of climate and nature action: being creative, able to problem solve and think clearly, we need to help ourselves get to a position of regulation. Two key messages shone through: the importance of self care, and the importance of group/social support. The role of local groups and the ELCAN network is key in supporting ourselves and our wider communities to uphold all our mental health. The Climate Hub will be looking at how we can share the key learnings with those who were unable to attend in the coming months. If you’d like to know more, or would like to help put together some basic resources to support ELCAN members and our wider communities please get in touch hello@eastlothianclimatehub.org
