Planet Shaftesbury Monthly Meeting

The May meeting on Thursday 16th provides an opportunity to prepare for a new phase in Planet Shaftesbury activity.

Having emerged after an Extinction Rebellion presentation in early November, Planet Shaftesbury was launched at a mid-January talk on Climate Change by Gary Mantle, Chief Executive of Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. That means we’ve now been going for 6 months. We seem to be both encouraging, and benefiting from, an upsurge in public concern about climate breakdown and loss of species. We’ve established regular meetings and seen increasing numbers of people getting involved and making new connections.

Variously (and this is not a complete list), some of us have –

engaged with several of the London actions of Extinction Rebellion;

explored what we might do as local groups to reduce plastic waste, tackle biodiversity loss, or support us in living more sustainably;

arranged and drawn people in to an informative talk about changing energy sources and possibilities for community energy;

made our concerns more apparent on local streets by first a poster campaign and then a ‘Critical Mass’ of around 130 people joining in a combined walk/cycle around the town;

established a website that is helping participants to share information and ideas;

felt inspired to create artwork: painting, writing, photography, music;

experienced the support of new connections - and friends, and the frustration of not being able to do more - and more quickly.

At the same time we’re seeing change happening around us: new town and Dorset councils now in place, UK Parliament (but not the government) have declared a climate emergency, and headlines have highlighted the Independent Committee on Climate Change recommendations for (somewhat) more ambitious emissions targets for the UK and the UN report on the devastating impact of humans on other species.

This is the context for our May meeting. Let’s find out what we’ve learnt and use it to prepare ourselves for more, and more effective, activity in the months ahead. Does Planet Shaftesbury need more structure? How do we link to other groups? What part can our monthly meetings play? What do we need from, or want to offer, one another? Whether you’re newly in touch with Planet Shaftesbury, or have been part of this network for many weeks now, please think about what you’d like this group to become and bring your ideas along on May 16th. The Town Hall will be open from 7pm for us to set up and we’ll start at 7.30pm.