Bath in pictures
‘Canary craftivists’ send gentle warning
When most people think about taking part in a climate change protest they might think of going on a march, the school and youth strikes or even sitting on a busy road and disrupting the traffic for a while; and they might think that protest is therefore “not for them”. If you’re in this camp there are other options for getting the message about the climate and ecological emergency across, and a small group of us from Bath have recently been trying our hand at “craftivism”, using handicraft skills to share our concerns about climate change with the community and send a warning message to our local MPS, that the Government needs to do more and faster to protect our home from global warming.
This climate-focused craftivism involves knitting, crocheting, sewing or handicrafting a small yellow canary to send to your MP with a letter asking them to use their position to push for stronger and faster action to tackle climate change locally and nationally and to encourage our Government to act as bold hosts of this year’s UN climate change summit, known as COP26, taking place in Glasgow in November.
Having been the first country in the world to industrialise, the UK has arguably contributed to climate change over the longest period. The UK Government now has this important role in bringing world leaders together to agree a way forward that will help, not harm, the world.
The canary is chosen as the symbol for this activism because, while they are small, they used to help warn miners of dangerous pollution such as carbon monoxide, keeping them safe while they worked. In the same way the canary craftivists hope that their little canaries and images of them sitting quietly in small “flocks” in the local area will gently warn and remind MPS and the Government about the urgent dangers of climate change and encourage them to take more and faster action to tackle this pressing issue.
It sometimes feels like the only way to create change is to march under giant banners and shout to have our voices heard. But if there’s time for the loud, there’s also time for the quiet. If there’s time for the fast, there’s also need for the slow. The more people, the quiet as well as the loud, who get in touch with their MP and tell them how worried they are about climate change the better. It’s an issue which has become increasingly close to many people’’s hearts, including our own, as they worry for their children, who will pay the price. Climate change will affect us all and the young people in Bath and North East Somerset, as elsewhere, deserve to thrive and not have to pay for the carbon emissions we’ve caused. We need our local MPS to do more to protect those we love.
Our little flock of “Canary Craftivists” met in the Circus recently to
promote this gentle form of activism and we would love to find out if there are other climate craftivists already out there and to encourage more people, of all genders, to join the craftivism approach and get stitching!
For more information about the Canary Craftivists and the craftivist collective movement, go to https://craftivist-collective.com/ blog/2021/08/canarycraftivists/
To link up with our little flock please send a message via our
Facebook page – www.facebook. com/thegreenoutreachhub/
Sue, Mel and Carmen by email