Hi readers, it’s Emily and William here talking about the environmental art project we’ve been doing with People First Dorset and Dorchester Museum over the past six weeks.
We wanted to thank Sarah and Hannah who have run the groups, because we have learnt so many things from them about the environment and in such a fun creative way.
The first week we chose different things to draw - butterflies, birds, the Jurassic coastline - it got us thinking about what we can do to protect them. Another week we talked about recycling as we painted some t-shirts. We wrote slogans like ‘recycle the world’ and ‘save the animals.’ That was fun.
Every week we’d talk about climate related things we had been thinking about during the week and shared ideas with each other. It was so interesting and fun too. We learnt what we can’t recycle, like some plastics, which must go in the main bin. It’s horrid we can’t recycle them. Just that conversation has made us more careful about not buying items plastic, like loose bananas. We’d like to see more fruit sold loose, which we’d put in our re-usable bags.
We also talked about cars idling their engines but we’ll write more about that another time.
We’d love more groups like this, to dig deeper into particular areas, to learn more and become better activists. We might not be like Greta but it’s important we do our bit. We have loved learning like this, exploring climate change, and now are doing things differently because we have understood why it’s important to change. We want to make a difference, however small.
With COP26, it’s more important than ever that we make an effort and do our bit to save the planet.
The writers of the Our View column are supported in their editing by The Friendship Club – a project for adults with learning disabilities, run by People First Dorset. Find out more at: www.peoplefirstdorset.org.uk/friendshipclub