A GROUP of climate activists at Lymm wants people to craft the village canary yellow – as a “gentle message” to the Government to take action on global warming.
The group, co-ordinated by the Rev Jill Elston, curate at St Mary’s Church, Lymm, has signed up to the Craftivist Collective Canary Campaign.
They want local people to join them and hand-craft canaries to send to their MP and the Government.
The idea is to gentle warm and help remind them of the urgent dangers of global warming and encourage them to take more and faster action to tackle the problem.
Rev Elston said: “When most people think about taking part in a climate change protest, they might think of going on a march, youth strike or even sitting on a busy road. “We liked the idea of using gentle activism. We have been inspired by the idea of the yellow canaries of the Canary Craftivist campaign, because they are small and sensitive little birds. “Yet in the past, they quietly helped warn miners of dangerous pollution such as carbon monoxide with miners treating them as valuable colleagues.”
The ‘Canary Craftivists’ campaign is part of a nationwide initiative run by the Craftivist Collective, who use handicrafts as a tool to do a form of quiet, kind and attractive activism that they call ‘gentle protest’.
The group will be making sewn and crochet canaries to share their concern about climate change with the community and send a warning message to local MPs that the Government needs to do more and faster to protect our home from global warming.
First time activist Derek Buckthorpe, 72, has crafted a poem to send to his MP.
He said, “It’s time to stop being a society that takes and become a society that puts back and rebuilds.”
This year the UK has a particularly important role to play to address climate change as it’s hosting the COP26 UN climate summit from November 9-19.
This meeting, hosted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the UK Government, will be a key moment where world leaders negotiate how they will reduce emissions to protect the environment and stabilise the climate.
As the first country in the world to industrialise, the UK has pioneered and shaped the world as well as contributing to the creation of climate change. This year the UK Government has an important role in bringing world leaders together to agree a way forward that will help, not harm, the world.
