One day, a man in Salford Quays awoke to find a duck nesting on his balcony, 150 ft above the water. Once born, her ducklings had to be lowered down in a bucket. With over 20 acres of water at her disposal, why did that mother duck decide to nest there? And why did thousands of fish in the same location die overnight?

Inspired by talking to the duckling rescuer, the inventor of cutting-edge water monitoring equipment, and an award-winning science fiction author, Emma Newman imagines a future where communities help to keep waterways across the UK clean enough to swim in thanks to a nifty monitoring system.

In episode 5 we heard from:

• Steve Stuttard, duckling rescuer (watch Steve's rescues on YouTube)
• Glynn Cotton from WATR, the environmental monitoring system
• Rachelle Atalla, author of "The Pharmacist" and "Dirty Animals"

Additional resources related to the episode

Join a local action group

When the average person can’t control how the funds in their own bank accounts or pensions are used by institutions, is there any way to stop terrible things being done with our money?

Inspired by conversations with the leader of a grassroots movement empowering women to take control of their finances, a community farm in Wales raising funds to keep the farm in the service of the local people it feeds, and an award-winning science fiction writer, Emma Newman imagines a world in which fossil fuel companies are starved of funds and ethical companies are able to thrive thanks to sensible, sustainable community investment.

Who we hear from in this episode:

Money Movers: https://www.wearemoneymovers.com/

Tydden Teg Farm: https://tyddynteg.com/

Adrian Tchaikovsky: https://adriantchaikovsky.com/

My own website: www.enewman.co.uk

Resources:

Friends of the Earth article about the World Bank:

https://foe.org/blog/finance-to-fossil-fuels-world-bank-imf/

The Tydden Teg Community Share offer document: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14eQEnnrDs7Bws7eFP8-IAme_gtoOZlFu/view

Report by Urgewald on World Bank Trade Finance: https://www.urgewald.org/sites/default/files/media-files/Urgewald%20-%20Trade%20Finance%20Paper%20-0923.pdf

Friends of the Earth article about UK Pension Funds:

https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/revealed-ps16bn-local-government-pensions-fuelling-climate-crisis

Tydden Teg’s Crowdfunder page - now finished, but you can see how they did it: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tyddyn-teg-community-shares

foe.uk/community-groups

Co-operatives UK - Helped Tydden Teg to do their community share offer: https://www.uk.coop/

The origin of Money Movers: https://experiments.friendsoftheearth.uk/projects/money-movers-get-your-friends-or-colleagues-together-take-climate-action-your-finances

Climate Town video on banks financing fossil fuel projects: https://youtu.be/NJ7W6HFHPYs

Across the UK there are thousands of faith buildings playing important roles in their communities. Churches, mosques, gurdwaras, all host gatherings for worship and for community activities such as playgroups, choirs, support groups and many more. Recently, many have been serving as warm banks, providing a space for people struggling to heat their homes in the energy crisis. How can these buildings, often huge and sometimes hundreds of years old, afford to provide these critical spaces in times of energy price hikes and still meet net-zero goals? Inspired by talking to an interfaith group in Birmingham, an innovative infra-red heating company in Bristol and an NYT bestselling science-fiction author, Emma Newman imagines a future in which community groups redesign the function of former shopping malls to create third spaces that repair the fabric of society.

Who we hear from in this episode:

Footsteps: https://footstepsbcf.org.uk/

Herschel Infrared: https://www.herschel-infrared.co.uk/heating-heritage-buildings/churches/

Una McCormack: https://unamccormack.co.uk/

My own website: www.enewman.co.uk

https://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/design/faith-buildings-and-local-communities/ - Interesting post about working with Bow Church to expand community activities

http://www.empoweringdesign.net/ - all about the research project looking at community engagement in the use of faith buildings

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/enabling-community-based-leadership-in-design-sustainable-development-of-historic-faith-buildings/1 - An Open University course designed to help people to consult with communities on the use of faith buildings

A video about the Halo heater, in which the diagram about bubbles of heat mentioned in the episode can be seen: https://youtu.be/eqnZF2uYMz4

Over the past couple of years, extreme weather events, the energy crisis and Brexit have put a visible strain on the UK’s food supply chain and increased prices for the consumer.

What if we increased the amount of food that we grow in cities, and thus increased biodiversity and reduced food miles?

Inspired by talking to a community gardens group in Reading, a horticultural engineer who has co-founded a vertical farm in London and an award-winning author and screenwriter, Emma Newman imagines a future in which communities grow so much food together on their doorstep that the UK no longer needs to import fresh fruit and veg...

Resources

In episode 2 we heard from:

• Reading Food for Families 
• Harvest London 
• Temi Oh 
• Reading International Solidarity Centre 
• Presenter Emma Newman 

The quote from Safia about her experience of growing food at Aisha Mosque garden was taken from this video and used with the kind permission of Andrea Berardi from COBRA Collective.

Get inspired by existing community gardening projects

• Postcode Gardener scheme (by Friends of the Earth and The Co-operative Bank)
• Incredible Edible movement (which Reading Food for Families is joining). Check out their campaign to establish a Right to Grow 
• Community food-growing initiatives highlighted by the COBRA Collective (PDF)

Most homes in the UK are still heated by burning fossil fuels. Struggling households are faced with unnecessarily high bills and cold winters, or bearing the financial burden of replacing old-fashioned central heating.

So is there a better way to heat and cool our buildings, accelerate decarbonisation and reduce fuel poverty?

Inspired by talking to a Welsh community, a scientist and award-winning author Anne Charnock, Emma Newman imagines a future in which ex-industrial towns can be regenerated, thanks to the intriguing idea of flooding mines...

In episode 1, we hear from:
Green SCIES (Centre of Excellence in Smart Local Energy Systems)
Cym Arian Renewable Energy (CARE)
Author Anne Charnock
Presenter Emma Newman 

For inspiration and guidance on starting your own community energy project, visit the websites listed below:
Welsh Government Energy Service
Community Energy Wales
Regen - Local and community energy support
Centre For Sustainable Energy 

Additional resources mentioned in the episode:
Friends of the Earth's guide to heat pumps and other eco-friendly heating
The Ogwen Valley social enterprise group (video)

Coming soon, a new podcast, Imagining Tomorrow shows how we can create a future that is good for people and for nature, based on innovations in technology and community action that are already having a positive impact. 

Join Emma Newman as she pieces together the roadmap to utopia by interviewing amazing inventors, communities and award-winning science fiction authors. 

We can’t build a better future until we can imagine it, so let’s imagine it together.

An episode from Friends of the Earth podcast series, How to Save the Planet.

This summer, in a ground-breaking ruling, a Dutch court ordered Shell to reduce its emissions. This is the first time a company has been made to take action to prevent climate breakdown.  

The case was brought by Friends of the Earth Netherlands, alongside 17,000 co-plaintiffs and other organisations.

In this episode Fran and Finn speak to Nine de Pater, from Friends of the Earth Netherlands, to hear more about the case and how these changes can have a wide impact on our planet. 

This is the last episode in the current season, How to Save the Planet podcast will be taking a break until the new year. Thanks for listening! 

An episode from Friends of the Earth podcast series, How to Save the Planet.

As lockdowns ease and we're able to get out again we look at groups working to address the under-representation of black and brown people in the outdoors. Over a couple of future episodes, we speak to people who are challenging this. 

Louisa and Danny speak to Rhiane Fatinikun. In 2019 Rhiane set up a small walking group Black Girls Hike, which today has thousands of members, providing a safe space for black women to explore the outdoors and reconnect with nature.

Find Black Girls Hike here: https://www.bghuk.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bgh_uk/