Climate Crisis Action
from Cheshire WI Climate AmbassadorsTake action with Cheshire Women’s Institute
WI Climate Ambassadors are WI members who feel passionately about protecting the environment from climate change and who want to work on this locally within their communities. We organise events to spread the message about carbon reduction and climate change and we provide talks for WI members.
We are WI Meeting Speakers
We have designed a talk for WI and Group meetings in Cheshire that can be anything from 20 minutes to an hour long depending on the time available.
The science of climate change
We go through the science of climate change, and explain why we have a climate crisis. We provide members with lots of ways they can help to mitigate and slow down the drastic changes to our planet’s climate.
Pledge to change
The talk ends with a rousing call to action; to ask every WI member to pledge to make a difference with ONE change in their lifestyles that will reduce their carbon footprint.
Our talk is free, but we do ask for a contribution to the travelling expenses for our two Ambassadors.
Would you like us to come and talk to your WI? Contact the Ambassadors today, we are now taking bookings for 2022 and 2023.
Carbon footprint ideas
Has your WI turned green yet?
Check out our map of Cheshire Federation WIs and how to turn yours green!
Eat more plants
Reducing your meat and dairy consumption will reduce your carbon footprint. Why not try a Meat free Monday?
Leave the car at home
Walking or cycling to work instead of driving is good for you AND the environment
Use peat free compost
Peat mosses are a massive natural carbon sink. Stop buying peat and they will stop being dug up and destroyed.
Turn the thermostat down
You and the family will hardly notice 1 degree less heat but the planet will feel the difference if we all do it.
Buy local food
Food miles in trucks, trains and planes create a huge carbon fotprint. Buy local potatoes and enjoy a better environment and fresher food.
We are Climate Crisis event organisers
We have organised a variety of events in Cheshire Federation, both independent action days and Show The Love events in partnership with the Climate Coalition. We always invite local Cheshire organisations as well as MPS and councillors. Some of our events include:
Festival of Nature in Oakenclough
The Wilmslow Festival of Nature was set up by Transition Wilmslow.
We had a painting table for children to paint a picture of the earth on a calendar and write a ‘promise for the earth’ to take home. People played the ‘guess the carbon footprint’ game, and there was a visual display board on restoration of peat bogs with reference to the local very damaged Lindow Moss. We provided recipes for using pumpkins and making a pumpkin facemask and foot scrubs as well as a surprisingly excellent pumpkin lip balm that went down a storm!
The Great Big Green Week in Delamere Forest
We set up a stall in the Forest near to the Visitors Centre. Our aim was to support the Great Big Green Week of the Climate Coalition. We offered a range of activities including the carbon footprint card game, a tree identification quiz with real baby trees, a display about peat bogs, free bee friendly plant seeds and a Pledge Tree. We also provided materials for the children to make Get Well Cards for Mother Earth, which we collected and sent to the delegates at COP 26 in the form of an eye catching video. The whole day was filled with conversations about the Climate Crisis and what we can all do about it. Gaia, our friendly Mother Earth giant drew everyone’s eye and brought our stand to the attention of all the walkers passing by.
Show the Love in Stockport Station
We had a stand to promote the Climate Coalition Show the Love initiative and we asked travellers to write on a heart the things they most want to protect from climate change. We also handed out badges saying ” I took the train and saved 40% carbon emissions”
Our stand included recipe cards showing delicious vegetarian recipes with photos, that people photographed with their phones to take away, and a wealth of climate crisis information and advice. Verity, the giant from Shropshire paid a visit and drew a lot of attention to what we were trying to do.
Waterside Rubbish Picks
As part of the Climate Coalition Week of Action, we organised a waterside Plastic Waste pickup walk and several Cheshire WI’s took part. The one in Runcorn including local MP Mike Amesbury and two awesome councillors Norman and Carol Plumpton-Walsh. They picked up 32 bags of rubbish and plastic including two prams! Some members also decorated hessian sacks to brighten the walk and bring home the message that single use plastic is a bad idea.
Show the Love in the Shopping City
We organised an event at the Shopping City and invited people to make, wear and share green hearts to Show the Love for the places, people and life we want to protect from climate change. Activities included seeing the latest drone footage from the Mersey Gateway and learning about the effect that warm seas have on coral. We had climate quiz games, met local environmental champions Cheshire Wildlife and Norton Priory and planted a green heart of wildflower seeds. We had a recycling and reuse stand packed with great ideas and demonstrations. The Cubs joined in and captured all hearts, not just the green ones. More than 300 people turned out to show their love for our planet and enjoy free activities and conversations with local community organisations.
Meres and Mosses Walk
Cheshire Federation members walked around some of the Mosses and Meres of Cheshire to find out more about these invaluable carbon sinks. Pauline Handley and Jean Hill, both members of Fulshaw WI in Wilmslow, went for a walk around Lindow Moss and discovered a fragile and beautiful environment, unique and rare, that is under grave threat which they highlighted to Cheshire Federation. The resulting campaign went across all of Cheshire and was successful in saving the Moss.
The Climate Conversation
We organised a public event to encourage people to talk about climate change. Peel Holdings had a stand and a very informative representative to talk about their wind farm, Viridor brought masses of information about their waste to energy plant and Halton Council had a stand about waste recycling. Oxfam came to display the situation in Africa, and we also had a local urban garden team with widlflower planting and advice. There was a live tree for people to attach pledges on what they will do to reduce their carbon footprint. The tree is now planted at Norton Priory.
