Going Green: Love the natural spaces we have all around us

National Marine week starts on the 27th July. It’s an initiative by the Wildlife Trust and this year’s theme is ‘sea connection’. The website has plenty of ideas on how you can get involved and what you can do to both protect and enjoy the seas and oceans that surround our little island and the globe.

Interestingly though, Love Parks week starts on the 26th July so the end of the month is all about loving the natural spaces we have around us and making the most of them and appreciating them.

The best way to get young people involved in their local environment is to get them out into it and get them engaging with it, so if you have young people in your life, why not think about getting them on their bikes during Love Parks week and doing a tour of your local parks. You can pack a picnic and visit a few over the course of a day.

If you’re retired or work from home why not plan to take your lunch to your local park one day that week too? And if you’re taking kids encourage them to notice their surroundings. They can touch or hug the trees, look at the light as it comes through the leaves, smell the wild flowers there. They can even do bug counts or turn over rocks and see what they find and then replace them how they found them.

We know green spaces have a huge mental health benefit but studies have found blue spaces such as lakes or rivers are even more beneficial at improving psychological and physical wellbeing.

A little place called Coton in the Elms is the furthest place away from the sea in the UK according to the Ordinance Survey. The little town in Derbyshire is 70 miles away from its nearest coast, which isn’t a huge distance so arguably, as the rest of us are closer, we could make a special effort that week to visit our nearest seaside.

In order for our green and blue spaces to stay as they are though, we need to look after them.

When it comes to protecting them, the more we appreciate their beauty the more we will value them.

Thanks to David Attenborough and other wildlife films, we know about plastic pollution in our oceans, but the other more concerning polluters are the oil and gas industry; the pollution we can’t see. Our oceans are being damaged from carbon dioxide pollution both directly making them more acidic and from the heat they trap causing global warming

So while this month is all about enjoying and celebrating oceans and parks, educating ourselves on how they’re at risk and what we can change to protect them will mean many more generations can enjoy them for years to come.