TEA, ANYONE?

Did any of you go to Brownies or Cub Scouts when you were younger? Remember those "Good Turns"? You were supposed to keep your eyes open for opportunities to do a good turn every day. Well, I would like to invite you to TEA.

Yes I am English. And yes, I do come from a long line of ancestors who always had a kettle boiling, just in case someone dropped round. I like tea (the drink or the meal). However, I will not be inviting you over for an evening meal of scones.

TEA

TEA are Tiny Environmental Acts - the least thing that you can do in a situation which offends you. It might be picking up one crisp packet in a park full of litter, leave out a few crumbs for hungry birds in Winter time, scatter a few seeds from an uprooted wildflower . The aim is to fix a little bit of damage that you did not create.

And how do these tiny acts achieve anything real, you may ask, sceptically. In the same way that the sliding of tiny stones may start an avalanche. In the same way that individual raindrops may wear away a mountain. Individually they are tiny forces, but done every day, done by enough people, they become unstoppable.

We are not going to save the world by being environmentally responsible in our own homes. If we live the rest of our lives as environmentally responsible people, there will always be others who live irresponsibly. To be truly environmentally responsible, we need to start to fix the problems other people have created.

Living Examples

Have you ever done something you know you should not have done. I remember as a child dropping a sweet paper on a pavement and an old man picking it up and putting it in a waste paper bin. He never spoke to me or told me off. If he had, the lesson might not have sunk in so well. When I saw him do that tiny environmental act, I felt deeply ashamed. Since that time I have been very responsible about litter.

When my children were young we went out Wombling. (The Wombles was a kids progamme about furry creatures who lived in Wimbledon Common and collected and re-used rubbish.) We did not re-use the rubbish we found. Instead we went out on walks and collected a few pieces of rubbish to put in bins. Within a little while of starting this, I found other people taking their kids out Wombling too. It's amazing how a good example catches on.

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