TREAD LIGHTLY
“We need to rewrite our story. To turn this tragedy into a triumph. We are, after all, the greatest problemsolvers to have ever existed on Earth.” There are countless quotes I’d love to print in Trail from Sir David Attenborough, but this one from the speech he gave at the recent COP26 conference stuck in my head. The global climate crisis and issues such as biodiversity loss, cutting our own carbon footprints and adopting more sustainable lifestyles are hardly new; but they’ve been brought into sharper focus by recent events. As a group of passionate enthusiasts who love mountains and wild landscapes, it’s a safe bet that many of us are already taking steps to limit our environmental impact. But that’s not to say we can’t do more.
At Trail we’re still learning as we go, working with our partners in the outdoor industry and listening to requests from readers to make sure we’re taking as many steps as possible to protect the environment we care so much about. That includes the addition this month of our new Tread Lightly logo, designed as a visual prompt throughout each issue of the magazine to highlight people or brands we think are doing great work in this field, and to hopefully point out ways you can take more sustainable steps yourself on outdoor adventures. Whether that’s using more public transport, buying more ethically sourced kit or lending support to some of the great climate projects and campaigns being run by organisations and partnerships like The BMC and Moors for the Future. As always we’d love to hear your feedback, so please get in touch with any suggestions. These issues aren’t going away without a fight, so let’s do everything we can to rewrite our story together.
Oli Reed, editor (Instagram @the_outdoordad)