Look out the window right now. Do see any house sparrows? I don't.
In the nineties, London lost seven out of every ten sparrows and there were fears the cockney sparra could soon be extinct in the Capital. Bear in mind that this little grey and brown bird has more or less colonised the world, and you can understand why this huge drop in numbers caused alarm.
In 2002, the RSPB, London Wildlife Trust, Greenspace information for Greater London and other members of the London Biodiversity Partnership ran a survey asking Londoners to count and tell us about the sparrows in their lives. A decade on and we're repeating that survey to update our understanding of how sparras are coping. The information we receive will better inform how we direct our scant resources to support sparrows. The survey ends on 12 July so please, PLEASE, do tell us about your sparrows.
At the weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch of a new book from the Geography Collective. A group of inspired teachers who're doing for geography what horrible histories has done for history. They've made the subject fun. The new book, Mission Explore FOOD will be available to buy in September but you can get a ... flavour .. of it online. Mums and Dads will frown at the idea of playing with food, but what we eat, where it comes from and the processes it goes through are important. We are part of the process of transforming food into soil to grow more food. Thinking of us just as another part of nature brings home our dependance on and responsibility for our environment. Everyone should read this book. Then giggle about the poo map.
Individuals do make a difference. The Mission Explore 'look' wouldn't be the same without illustrator Tom Morgan-Jones. Rail ebankments wouldn't look fantastic and support wildlife without the efforts of people like Bienam, Bernadette or Sue of the Friends of Homerton Station, or the volunteers who care for the East & West Bank Nature Reserve. Many a pupil at Brentford School for Girls has benefited from the motivation and enthusiasm of Marianne Gilbert, who does so much for their GLADs club and many other organisations in that neck of West London.
Yesterday I read about Dwayne Fields. Born in Jamaica, he's lived in the UK for 23 or his 29 years of age. He was stuck in a stereotype, but having survived being stabbed and shot at, he decided to change people's perceptions. He's already the first black British man to reach the North pole and is planning to reach the South pole. In his experience, black people don't do the environment, but that's largely bcause they're either not encouraged to do so, or are positively discouraged.
Individuals do make a difference, but together, we can achieve greater things for ourselves and our planet.