May 2009
Spring has sprung, foragers are feasting and everyone else is wafting about in uncharacteristically bright colours and unnecessarily large sunglasses. We like it like that.
Turn On Turn Off
Cadbury’s going Fairtrade Flights for lights
Bin your bin
This month we're bringing you round three of Otesha's monthly challenges. This month your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to bin your bin and go rubbish-free for a month. That means avoiding consuming anything that cannot be reused, recycled or composted.
If you need to know what you can recycle, where you can recycle or why you should recycle, recycle now has all the answers (including how to get composting at home).
It's not easy being rubbish-free. (If it was we'd call it ‘the Otesha monthly stroll in the park'. Actually that sounds fun - maybe we should do that too.) So email us with your rubbish conundrums and we'll do our best to provide support and suggestions. Likewise if your recycling bin of ideas is overflowing - share them with us. We want your photos, films, anecdotes and cold hard data. Don't be rubbish, bin your bin.
Dig for Victory
Michelle and Barack Obama have dug up the White House lawn to create an organic garden, the people of Middlesborough planted radishes on their roundabouts and at Otesha we've been eating salad grown on our office windowsills. Growing your own food is a trend. Fact.
Which leads us nicely into the launch of the lovely Landshare, small ads for food growers without land and landowners without food. Instead of hungrily loitering for years on an allotment waiting list, Landshare's website connects people who want to grow food with people with land to share, who will also get a share of the produce. Perfect for those who want to swap a patch of their lawn for lettuces.
Cycling n' stuff
If you didn't know already (where have you been?), 3 teams of cyclists will be pedaling their ways and their wares around the UK this summer. There's only one space left on Wild West, the first Otesha cycle tour of the season, which will be touring the Otesha Morning Choices play and a pannier full of workshops around Wales. We're looking for people in Aberystwyth, Cardiff, Carmarthen and Cardigan who would welcome a team of sweaty cyclists into their lives for a night. Hosts will be rewarded with songs and dancing from grateful cyclists (plus an encore for anyone who can provide a shower).
Later on this summer we'll be heading up high into the hills of Scotland and down to the low-lying lands of East Anglia. The Caledonian Road and East Coast teams will be on their bikes from 7th August to 19th September. We'll be visiting Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Stirling, Glasgow, the Isle of Arran, Peterborough, King's Lynn, Norwich, Lowestoft, Ipswich and Cambridge. If you've got the Norfolk knowledge or a sense of Scotland in your soul, please let us know if there's anyone or anywhere that we must visit on our travels (especially in Cromer, since we're going there twice).
Unbelievable, unforgettable, unstoppable young people at the UN
In December 2008, a group of 16 young people boarded the train to Poland to take on the big-wigs at the UN. They were the first ever UK Youth Delegation to the UN Climate Change Negotiations. We were three of them. This year they'll be doing it again at the UN Negotiations in Copenhagen, when government representatives from 192 countries will meet to negotiate a global deal to tackle climate change. They'll be negotiating a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which needs to be bigger, better and more effective. Applications for the UK Youth Delegation to Copenhagen are now open. So if you're 18-26 and have a good head for acronyms, apply by May 22. Your climate needs you.
And finally...
This month we'll mostly be organising our own screenings of The Age of Stupid. From May 21st anyone can get their hands on a copy of the film for a fee that will reflect whether you want to show it in your bedroom or in a boardroom.
Jo, Hanna & Liz
The Otesha Project UK
www.otesha.org.uk
p.s. This month, we'll also be dropping by Girlation at the Natural History Museum to be one of the experts in a high-heeled boot camp. Yep, we'll be providing advice on how to green up your life in 5 min or less. If you're a girl aged 11-18 or know someone who is, come see us on May 17