Village Sustainability Newsletter August 2026
SUSTAINABILITY – WORKING TOWARDS THE COFE’S CARBON NEUTRAL TARGET 2030
Hot and Angry?
I am writing this in the coolest room in the house which is still uncomfortably warm, on day one of a red hot weather warning which has been building up for several days, in the second consecutive month of record-breaking temperatures this year. After writing this came a “week off” followed by another extended heatwave.
Whether you love it or loathe it, it’s a hot, hot summer. The Guardian reported that Britons are expected to buy nearly 8 million mini fans this year as they are “surging on to the market” in the hot weather. Sadly almost half of those are expected to be low-quality products that will end up in landfill within a year. As ever, I urge you to buy less, better. If you need a fan, choose a sturdy, effective one that will last, or use an old fashioned “manual” one.
Many people are talking about 1976 when for 15 consecutive days from 23 June to 7 July, temperatures reached or exceeded 32.2°C somewhere in England every day. The UK has recorded a temperature above 35°C for three consecutive months so far this year, something that would have been unusual just once a year in the 20th century, according to the Met Office. Record temperatures have been surpassed again and again, and we are told that the 10 warmest years in the historical record have all occurred in the past decade. My young adult children do not expect to be in their 70s before we again have UK temperatures in the high 30s in June.
I was told yesterday that “climate always changes; after all we used to have ice ages.” I pointed out that changes from the ice ages took millions of years and the pace of current global heating is extraordinary, terrifying and human-made. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise; climate scientists assure us that it is. And its effects will be devastating.
As the heatwave was building, the gardening club hosted an excellent bird and wildlife discovery walk at Crookham Common, led by the highly engaging expert, Ailsa Claybourn. We learned a huge amount and I will return to this at a later date, but many of our conversations came back to the same point - what is vital in looking after climate, nature and the environment is education, education, education.
As we were discussing environmental matters we touched upon something that was very frustrating and Ailsa exclaimed “Oh it's too hot to be angry!” I replied “it's too hot NOT to be angry.”
Are we angry enough? We should be angry that it’s unbearably, harmfully hot and getting hotter. Angry at the decline of native plants, wildlife and other species here and all over the world. Angry that the way of life we were brought up to believe “normal” is in fact hugely damaging to our environment and all we share the planet with.
And my reaction to hearing the news of this current heatwave was one of real sadness and as a Christian, sorriness (is that even a word?) for all the harm that we humans have done and continue to do to this extraordinary, beautiful planet, and hence to each other.
We should get angry, we should get sad and we MUST continue to do all we can to reverse the changes which have bought us to this current climate crisis. We are regularly told that time is running out and that the planet is hurtling towards a point of no return. We need to continue to recognise our power and our effect, ensuring that our every decision is a considered one and that our actions express our choice and our voice.
How often do we fly? How does the country we buy our products generate the power for its manufacturing plant? Are the foods we eat grown using harmful pesticides and fertilisers? How will we replace our boiler when it fails? Is the packaging from our shopping still going to be around in 100 years? What will actually happen to our clothes when we have finished with them and dropped them at a charity shop?
How can we use our decision-making roles to make important changes that stretch further than our households? Tennis mum Judy Murray tackled during Wimbledon the problem of how to keep our whites white – supported by the manufacturers of Glowhite. Use these laundry products, they say. Or should we instead ask ourselves why we need so many white clothes at all? Coloured clothes hide marks and discoloration from use. White primary school polo shirts are a prime example of this daft idea, worn by fast-growing people with tomatoey lunches, chocolatey hands, underdeveloped cutlery skills and a lot of paint and mud in their lives.
Talking of education, let’s not let up on talking to each other, sharing everything we know, learning, teaching and encouraging each other.
Julia Hoaen