On 15 September 1992, Royal Mail issued a set of stamps on the Green Issue.
The stamps were the result of a competition held jointly by the BBC’s Blue Peter programme and the Royal Mail. Children from arrange of age groups were asked to submit their ideas for stamps relating to the environment.
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The winners were:
Christopher Hall (9) – Acid Rain Kills
Lewis Fowler (6) – Ozone Layer
Sarah Jo Warren (7) – Greenhouse Effects
Alice Newton-Mold (12) – Bird of Hope
 
The first day cover envelope included the plea “Save my World. Save Me” from Jessica Newhouse-Smith (7).
 
There were submissions by entrants from across the United Kingdom which covered every imaginable green issue and ranged from the optimistic to the pessimistic and a were expressed in words as well as pictures.
 
28 years later we suddenly started to  listen to a young Swedish girl. Its a crying shame that our own children were not taken seriously, back when the changes were needed to be made!

CPCAG will be having its first informal, public meet-up this coming monday.
It will be a chance for members and like-minded Castle Point residents to meet up, get to know each other and share ideas.
Just turn up or even better- let us know via the contact page.
Everyone is welcome, from the curious who would like to know more about climate change, to the  actioneers who are passionate about making the changes and getting things done.

By CPCAG member Eileen Peck

BBC Radio 4’s Positive Thinking recently looked at how much food waste contributes to climate change and I was pretty amazed at what I learned:


• Worldwide almost a third of food produced for human consumption goes to waste
• In the UK almost 10m tons of food are binned every year including around 50m chickens, 100m pints of milk and 800,000 apples
• Global food waste contributes almost 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions – the third worst in global emissions.


Several enterprising people discussed their ideas for dealing with the problem but the item which really grabbed my attention was the ‘use by’ and ‘best buy’labelling of food, a subject often the subject of discussion in my household. Don’t we all occasionally open the fridge, notice an item is past the ‘use by’ date and ponder whether we shouldthrow it away?


But, a man still healthy and living to tell the tale had eaten peanut butter 7 years(!) after date (it didn’t taste wonderful but didn’t make him sick) and even someone who claims he was unharmed by tinned salmon well past its date.
An expert claimed – as I’d long suspected! – that we could all help reduce food waste by looking and smelling to decide whether food is ‘off’.


The ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ labelling requirement was introduced under the Food Safety Act of 1990 and has surely led to an increase in food waste. Perhaps the legislation needs to be revisited by government now it has declared a climate emergency?
Lots of interesting ideas about food waste on –
https://bbc.in/2N9dqco

​If you are interested in learning more about climate change then read on …

In our December newsletter Emma Powell, Castle Point’s very own UN Accredited Climate Change Teacher, told us about the exciting work she is doing in schools in our area to empower teachers and prepare children for the climate change emergency through education.
 
Emma has completed the course especially aimed at teachers but there is wide range of on-line study material produced by the UN which some of us are already finding very interesting. 
First there is an introductory course on climate change and then different topics are covered – Sustainable Diet, Gender & the environment, Sustainable Finance, Green Economy, Children and Climate Change and lots more.  See -

www.unccelearn.org/course/

Now that we are into the New Year we’re thinking that we’d like to start a study group for anyone interested in getting together to discuss the issues.  
If you’d be interested in joining our community study group please get in touch with through our contact us page