#100DaysOfGreenNevis

Well, Happy New Year! It’s not like it’s January anymore, or even very happy, but what can you do? One thing that does belong to a New Year, though, is new themes – and writing is one of mine.

Nevis Ensemble, the orchestra I play with, has a new campaign out: 100 Days of Green Nevis. The idea is that its musicians, staff, and audiences take part in ‘creative and practical tasks to raise awareness and improve their own sustainable living’ for 100 days. By committing to reimagining our lives clearly, we hope to make the change needed *Now* to save our ecosystems a bit easier, and to build the mandate needed to save our own livelihoods.

There are all kinds of schemes going on. Several of my colleagues in Nevis are running, or cycling, the famous 500 miles (and the 1000 more!) over the 100 Days from the 1st February to raise awareness and money for climate causes. Others people are going vegetarian, or committing to write pieces of music about wildlife, nature, destruction, or some other element of the crises that surround us.

The thing that I decided to do, though, was to try and make these struggles clear, because the climate crisis has daunted me like nothing else. The knowledge that economies and communities have to change *Now* is almost incomprehensible, as it tell us that the world is not necessarily how we experience it. We can work past that.

I remember reading a book by Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything, and being struck by Klein’s point that a lot of the changes we need to make are attractive changes, good changes, healthy changes for all involved! Saving the world will not kill us! It will actually do the opposite!

As such, I’ve committed to this: every week on Sunday, I will write a post about 7 policies. They will sometimes be clear goals for our political parties, sometimes more speculative so as to help discussion. I will try to signpost and highlight good work and organisations, often for a UK audience, but drawing on international work when relevant. There may be a theme for the week, I may even decide to write a poem about Universal Basic Income, but whatever happens, I will try and show that the changes we need are possible, and good, and most importantly are real. It’s in the interests of climate exploiters and deniers to keep our struggle mystified, and in our interests to know what we have to do.

We want to reimagine the future, but people have already done that work.
Now, we need tasks.

Please get in touch if you’ like to talk about this project, the climate crisis or anything else I’ve brought up.

All the best,

Isaac@BitsOfPieces