A climate emergency has been declared by international institutions, national and local governments and yet business as usual continues all around us. Science reveals the very real and imminent potential collapse of the global ecosystem and the society it supports. The mainstream media are beginning to tell the story but often with little mention of the solutions immediately available. This is inevitably creating trauma within people, as the challenges and scale of the crisis are so big and systematic they feel beyond our ability to address. However, another world is possible and grounded, real solutions exist.

If you have land there are crucial things to do as soon as possible to make a contribution to our urgent response to the climate crisis.

These include -

1. Protect and Create Wild Havens

In 2009 our 5 acre holding was in a bare, lifeless field, with few insects or birds. With a simple design approach, we saw this land and its ecosystems quickly come back to life. By allowing hedges to spread and become robust wild edges, it created vital habitat for birds and small mammals. Linking existing hedgerows and woodlands with dense shrubs and trees has been successful in making wildlife corridors. These wild havens are best left undisturbed and provide both a buffer to extremes of climate and a significant resource in safeguarding biodiversity and sequestering CO2.and Restore Ourselves and Ecosystems

2. Regenerate and Restore Ourselves and Ecosystems

We can make a huge impact on CO2 emissions as gardeners and stewards of land through regenerative land use. At the Lammas eco-village, a network of privately owned smallholdings, no chemical pesticides or herbicides are used. Over the last 10 years, soils have been repaired and we now see vegetable gardens flourishing and threatened species, such as bees, thriving. Simple techniques, such as No Dig gardening, have been demonstrated to lock in the soil significant amounts of CO2. The more people take up these practices, the more persuasive the data becomes. This offers real solutions to climate breakdown and species extinction in a very short timescale. To be part of the solution, rather than the problem, by becoming a nature steward in this way is deeply healing, restoring personal sanity and reconnecting us with the earth.

3. Resilience, Security and Zero Carbon Living

In a rural area, with access to a couple of acres of land, you can meet your own heating and cooking needs and have zero carbon impact through being independent of fossil fuels. you don't have to wait to 2025, it's possible right now. Coppicing trees significantly sequesters CO2, provides excellent habitat for biodiversity and creates microclimate to mitigate high winds, heavy rains and extremes of temperature. Heating your home with sustainably harvested wood and using simple passive solar design (south facing greenhouses and windows) is simple, satisfying and empowering.

Growing your own food lessens your environmental footprint, through reducing your energy use in a number of ways, such as minimising food miles, packaging and waste. Cultivating perennial crops that do not need planting each year is an important strategy for resilience. Food crops such as fruit bushes, jerusalem artichokes and perennial leafy greens, can withstand drought and storms and are much less susceptible to pests and disease. Agroforestry or forest gardening is one of a number of such approaches to regenerative land use. Again, these established techniques also are key methods to sequester climate emissions and stabilise the atmosphere.

Harvesting your own water, generating your own electric and managing your own waste through reedbeds and composting take a fair amount of effort to design and set up well. However, with a systems design approach, you are linking inputs to outputs and creating energy efficiency and resilience in a relatively short time scale. Permaculture design in this way offers us a route out of bare survival, towards security and thrival.

If you live in an urban area, find your local permaculture or Incredible Edible group and get involved in practical solutions. Having the support and inspiration of like minded people is key to meeting the stress and trauma engendered by the declaration of a climate emergency. It's time for us to be effective in our actions, look after ourselves and step up our agency.

4. Buy an eco small-holding and live the dream

It is well understood that action, rather than fear and paralysis, reduces feelings of despair. To step up your agency and respond in your personal life is a key strategy to overcome this and become empowered. To spend time in nature and connect with like minded people is a powerful remedy for anxiety. If you are interested in moving to the countryside and have an appetite for self build and off grid living, please contact us as we are ready to sell our smallholding to the right people.

Full details www.beingsomewhere.net