A Wall of Hope 
Guest Post!: About the Author
Louise Mcguill is a freelance copywriter specialising in personality-rich, conversational copy. Her passion lies in helping planet-loving brands catapult their reach, increase engagement and build communities through the power of words. Her mission is to ensure consumers see and hear the voices of brands that are ‘doing good’, brands that are sustainable and that are striving for circularity in the textile world.
Find out how Louise can help you ‘shout about’ what makes your brand THE go-to brand by visiting www.louisemcopy.com or connecting on Linkedin.
[just tell me the 6 ways – I’m in a rush] — I get it, click here to be taken to the list.
You’re probably ahead of me with this, but I just found out how much clothing and textile waste there is in the world and my brain is about to explode!
Brand new clothes — still with tags on — festering in landfills.
Fast fashion fogging the brains of consumers.
Social media users not daring to wear an entire outfit more than once if they’ve been photographed in it.
And this…
A rubbish truck full of textiles is landfilled or incinerated globally every second… You read that right: EVERY. SECOND.
This probably isn’t what you’re expecting to read next but…hands up – I’m actually sat staring at my bursting drawers and stuffed wardrobe littered with clothing and accessories which I admit include fast fashion brands, items that have been redundant for many years or worse still- still have tags on.
Stop.
Take a step back.
Take a breath.
And, breath.
Yes, you too may well have some of these things in your possession (I see you looking around your wardrobe)…
Let’s face it, the link between purchasing and clothing waste hasn’t always been at the forefront of everyone’s minds and still isn’t for some.
Don’t fret.
There is a lot that needs to be done to ensure consumers (you and I included) take some responsibility for steering the course of clothing away from landfill.
So, where do we start?
👉With purposeful and consistent education.
Now, I’m not talking about shaming or blaming. Nor am I talking about lecturing, because none of these would work long-term.
I’m talking education – providing consumers with knowledge and skills so they can begin to take their own actions.
Because knowledge really is power.
By education I mean fresh Actions and Opportunities.
Actions that individuals can make today.
Actions that brands and businesses can make.
Actions that are accessible to all.
Actions that no matter how small, can and will impact positively on the environment.
A lot of your current actions come from habit.
Habits created over years and years.
Mostly influenced through those around you and role models- doing what they have always done without really consciously thinking.
Ever found yourself:
🤔buying a new outfit for a big night out.
🤔Rejecting that dress because you wore it to a wedding at the beginning of the year so need something new for this one.
🤔justifying your purchasing because you’ve been working hard so you deserve to treat yourself…(remember those boots you just HAD to have which are now sat collecting dust at the back of your wardrobe because the first time you wore them you walked like Bambi on ice and had shin splints for a week after…and the list goes on)
Relate to any of this?
Imagine the impact on the planet (and your bank balance) if you took one action…now imagine if that doubles to two and so on.
Statistics are important, because mostly they are shocking and raise our awareness and attention to said topics! However, if any change is going to happen, ACTIONS are the powerhouse.
So here are some to start you off.
And, the great news is these ACTIONS are:
Simple.
Cost nothing.
Can be started immediately.
And bonus, they could even save you some well-needed extra money.
Your actions do count.
So let’s make them positive.
6 Simple Ways YOU Can Help Change the Course of Clothing for a Cleaner Planet
- Make purchasing brand-new clothes your last resort!
- Take everything out of your wardrobe, drawers and closets – reorganise it… and fall back in love with the clothes you already have.
- If you do need to purchase something (new or preloved), spend five minutes researching ethical/sustainable or circular clothing brands who are, where possible, using natural materials BEFORE you add them to your basket.
- Challenge yourself to limit your purchasing- eg this year I’m only going to buy 5 items of clothing maximum…( to be even more successful, write down what it is and when you will need to purchase it).
- Talk positively about clothing choices and their impact to anyone who will listen…*don’t preach…you’ll lose them as a friend.
- If you’re active on social media, make a point of wearing the same clothes in pictures and videos and point it out in your captions. Everyone needs to know it’s ok AND NORMAL to wear clothes again and again.
*if you’re not posting on social media, this still counts for you. In your day-to-day life – at the office or when going out to an event, repeat your outfits. Once again – it is ok to wear clothes again and again. Don’t shy away from it – point it out to people.
Remember the most environmentally sustainable clothes are the ones you already own
It’s not rocket science is it?
These actions aren’t unachievable.
They’re not even ground-breaking….
But they could work…
Are These Small Changes Really Going to Make an Impact?
As they stand, if just one person in the world did it, then the impact would be pretty insignificant.
Imagine though if you’re the first person to kick-start this revolution…imagine if you inspire someone else to make a change. Now imagine, if they went on and inspired someone… the beginning of a chain reaction.
This is how change happens and this is how we as a collective can impact and change the course of clothing for our planet.
So, What’s Your Action Going to Be?
Got any you would add?
It’d be great to hear about your progress.
For now, I’m climbing into my wardrobe and getting started with Action 2.
Let’s do this. 💪
Guest Post!: About the Author
Lena Milton is a freelance writer covering sustainability, health and environmental science. She writes to help consumers understand the environmental and ethical challenges in everyday life so we can find viable solutions for both.
If you’re reading this, you probably recycle the plastic packaging used to contain everything from cookies to sandwiches. Maybe you even buy from brands advertising packaging made from recycled materials. Or maybe your favourite restaurant provides compostable takeout containers. Like many shoppers these days, I spend time thinking about the most environmentally-friendly packaging options. But with so many options out there, it can be hard to know if you’re actually making a difference.
As more and more brands begin to take sustainability more seriously, packaging is often one of the first initiatives a company will take to show its customers a commitment to lessening its environmental impacts. And customers are interested! A 2021 survey showed that nearly 70% of consumers polled were willing to pay more for an item that is sustainably packaged.
While sustainable packaging of any kind is a step in the right direction, when it comes down to it, many recycled packaging concepts sound greener than they actually are. Come along as we investigate the best solutions to our plastic packaging crisis. After reviewing the problems with plastic packaging, we’ll examine some of the sustainable packaging options available. Finally, we’ll explore the systemic changes that may be just the solution we’re looking for.
The Plastic Problem
Around 14.5 million tonnes of plastic containers were produced in the U.S. in 2018, and over 359 million tonnes of plastic was produced globally. These numbers have only increased since then.
Plastic packaging is nearly everywhere you turn in the grocery store. Whether it’s hard plastic bottles or soft plastic wraps and bags, it’s quite difficult to shop without buying at least one item covered in plastic.
In fact, around 14.5 million tonnes of plastic containers were produced in the U.S. in 2018, and over 359 million tonnes of plastic was produced globally. These numbers have only increased since then. Despite the large amount of plastic containers produced, very little of it is recycled, and much of it ends up in landfills or, eventually, in the ocean or other fragile ecosystems. Additionally, many plastics contain impurities, heavy metals, or other toxic chemicals that leach out over time into the environment. While some companies test their food packaging and containers, most plastics still end up with some dangerous chemicals.
Not only does all this plastic create huge amounts of waste (looking at you, Great Pacific Garbage Patch!), but it also creates large levels of carbon emissions because plastic is made from fossil fuels. In fact, around 4-8% of the world’s annual oil consumption comes from plastics. Reducing the environmental impacts of packaging is a matter of taking every stage of the packaging’s lifecycle into account.
So, What Solutions Exist?
While all the facts above sound bad (and yeah, they are), many companies have taken steps to try and address the problems associated with plastic packaging. This does represent an important shift in business values towards sustainability, which should be celebrated.
Unfortunately though, some of these sustainable packaging practices are less effective than we’d like and may contribute to a company being able to say they’re sustainable without truly lessening their impacts.
Recyclable Packaging
One of the most common misconceptions is that simply having recyclable packaging, such as plastics or cardboard, is environmentally friendly. While this is likely better than packaging that must be thrown out, the reality is that most packaging, including kinds that can be recycled, don’t actually end up being recycled.
In fact, according to the Product Stewardship Institute, only 9% of plastic products are recycled in the U.S., one of the worst culprits. And some plastic products labelled as recyclable can’t be processed by your local recycling program. Additionally, we’re not all recycling masters, and sometimes may put the wrong items in recycling bins, which contaminates the entire recycling process.
So – recyclable packaging is better than products that can’t be recycled at all, but only if we actually recycle it. That said, many areas in Europe and Canada have implemented “extended producer responsibility” (EPR) programs that put the burden on companies, rather than consumers, to help increase recycling and material recovery rates. EPR programs have successfully reduced contamination and increased recovery.
Recycled Packaging
What of recyclable packaging’s close cousin, packaging made from recycled materials? First, it should be noted that packaging made from recycled materials relies on us actually recycling material in the first place, which, as we noted above, is easier said than done.
Second, while creating packaging made from recycled materials does reduce the need for new raw materials (plastic) to be created, the production process is still somewhat similar to that of conventional plastic packaging. This solution is positive because it helps reduce plastic waste and the need for raw materials, but it doesn’t take the full lifecycle of the packaging into account.
Compostable Packaging
Compostable packaging must be processed in a specific way, which can sometimes be challenging for smaller facilities.
Compostable packaging presents some of the same issues as recyclable packaging, as much of it does not end up getting composted. Additionally, compostable packaging must be processed in a specific way, which can sometimes be challenging for smaller facilities such as a town’s composting facility. Some compostable containers aren’t even accepted by composting facilities because of how long they take to break down.
Additionally, watch out for companies claiming their packaging is biodegradable – this is not the same as compostable! In fact, biodegradable packaging may produce toxins as it degrades, and there is no fixed timeframe for how long it takes to break down.
There is good news on the horizon for compostable packaging, though. A new packaging material called PHA is being used to develop compostable containers that degrade much more easily – so easily, in fact, that you can break it down in your own backyard compost without an industrial composting facility.
The Best Solution: Reduce and Reuse
The best solution is to simply reduce the amount of packaging we use as a whole. We’ve all been there; you open the plastic outer coating only to find more plastic packaging on the inside! Reducing the amount of plastic packaging we use not only reduces the amount of raw materials used, but it also reduces the environmental costs of producing new products and reduces packaging waste.
Now you’re probably wondering how we can reduce plastic packaging. After all, some products need packaging. That’s where reuse comes in.
One of the most effective solutions to the problem of plastic packaging is to use reusable, refillable containers instead. As of 2019, less than 2% of plastic packaging was reusable. However, this solution is extremely promising, because it would drastically reduce the amount of plastic we produce and throw out.
So, what does this entail? Reusable packaging is packaging or containers made from glass, metal, or even ceramic that can be refilled. This can take many forms. One option that is already being implemented by several companies are programs where customers buy products online, are sent products in reusable packaging, and then send that container back to the company to be reused. For example, Loop is an online marketplace that sends you products in reusable packaging that you then return. While this is likely still better than plastic, the environmental burden of transportation may start to outweigh the positive benefits of the reusable container.
One of the main hurdles to implementing reusable packaging, other than the actual creation of these programs, is simply customer buy-in. After all, buying something wrapped in plastic and simply throwing it out is easy. One option to ensure people actually return the reusable containers is to include a refundable cost into the cost of the product. For example, when you buy a food item in a metal container, you pay an extra fee that you get back when you turn in the container.
The best solution is to simply reduce the amount of packaging we use as a whole.
In order to achieve more widespread reuse of products, we need a system-wide overhaul of how we do our shopping. For this reason, many have posited that the best solution to sustainable packaging is grocery stores that allow customers to fill up their own reusable containers. This would likely also reduce branded packaging, which would help reduce the amount of greenwashing we see in grocery stores.
As with any solution, it’s important to implement reusable packaging thoughtfully. First, it should be noted that items must be reused a certain number of times before it’s actually more environmentally friendly than a disposable product. For example, glass can have a positive environmental impact compared to paper with only six uses.
Where Does This Leave Us?
According to a 2020 McKinsey report, out of all companies that support sustainable packaging, 60% focus on recycling packaging or on recycled content in their packaging, 26% focus on reducing packaging use, and a mere 14% focus on promoting systemic change.
First, some zero-waste grocery stores already exist! Try searching for a zero-waste store near you. Even if the full store isn’t zero waste, many natural foods stores with bulk sections allow you to bring your own container. You can also consider reducing your own plastic use at conventional grocery stores by bringing your own bags for produce.
If we want to truly address the problem of packaging, we need to shift more companies over to promoting systemic change. This may sound daunting, but here’s some good news: customers are increasingly pushing for this, and so are governments. Additionally, we know what needs to happen – now, it’s just a matter of making it happen!
Treeapp: Plant Trees For Free With a Tap Of Your Screen
Pretty much every day, not long after I wake up, I stick on the kettle, make a cup of tea, and then, I plant a tree.
Between making the cup of tea and planting the tree each morning, it’s the tea that requires greater input from me.
Well goodness gracious me that must take quite a flaming effort musn’t it? Must it not!? I must be some sort of energetic man with an energetic plan and time and money and energy to burn if I’m out there in the chilly hilly wilderness planting trees every morning come what November?
Well actually, you can forget about what month it is, forget about the energetic, and forget about burning things too, because planting these trees every morning actually requires very little effort at all. Very very little effort indeed! (And it’s completely financially free!)
Between making the cup of tea and planting the tree each morning, it’s the tea that requires greater input from me.
Each tree, you see, I can plant with a few wee taps of my phone screen. And you can do this too; simple as that. (Even if you prefer coffee with your morning tree!)
All you’ve got to do is go and download this free app, called: Treeapp.
But what is Treeapp exactly?
What is Treeapp and Where Did it Come From?
As you’ve probably already gathered, Treeapp is an app that lets you easily plant trees, for free. And not just any little old trees at that.
With Treeapp, the trees you plant are planted through recognised and well-respected reforestation organisations, and great care is taken to ensure that the right trees are planted in the right places at the right time. All trees planted through Treeapp are also properly cared for, so that they can flourish for years and years! (And therefore sequester tonnes and tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere throughout their lifetime, helping to tackle the climate crisis and cool down the planet in the process)
Treeapp was founded in 2019 by Jules Buker, Godefroy Harito, and Leo Ng, with the main goal of providing regular folks with the ability to plant trees, without the need for time, money, or tree-planting expertise!
With Treeapp, the trees you plant are planted through recognised and well-respected reforestation organisations, and great care is taken to ensure that the right trees are planted in the right places at the right time.
The founders describe Treeapp as “a place for anyone to have an environmental, social and economic impact in the areas that need it most.”
But how is this actually possible? I mean, who the heck is actually paying for all these wonderful trees to be planted?
So How Exactly Does Treeapp Work?
Funded by Eco-Friendly Brands
On Treeapp, you can plant one free tree each day.
Treeapp is very careful to only partner with businesses that have a genuinely positive environmental focus. Treeapp allows these planet-conscious businesses to advertise and conduct market research through the app, and in return, these businesses fund the planting of the trees.
These ‘free’ trees are basically funded by marketing. But we’re not talking about the ‘big bad buy buy buy this barbaric bunch of planet-bashing bullcrap even though you don’t need it’ kind of marketing. We’re talking about the ‘here’s a genuinely useful, well-designed offering that might help you reduce your environmental impact and improve your life’ kind of marketing!
Treeapp is very careful to only partner with businesses that have a genuinely positive environmental focus. Treeapp allows these planet-conscious businesses to advertise and conduct market research through the app, and in return, these businesses fund the planting of the trees. Briiv, L’Occitane, Nordgreen, Georganics, Green Pear Eco, Wild, and Dash-Water are just some of the current sponsor brands, but there are many many others involved too.
Now I reckon that’s a fair deal really isn’t it? I mean it barely even sounds like a deal at all. It just sounds like a flipping fantastic idea that’s beneficial for everyone involved!
Here’s a step-by-step of how you can plant trees through Treeapp:
How to Plant Trees Through Treeapp
1. First, just whip out your phone (you were probably on it already weren’t you?), and open up Treeapp.
2. Choose a tree-planting project from the beautifully scrollable interactive map of the world.
3. Spend about 30 seconds checking out an advertisement from an eco-friendly sponsor brand.
4. Once the ad is over, you can plant a tree in your chosen location with a single tap of your screen.
5. It is then possible to track your impact, view your updated carbon footprint after planting the tree, and you can also check out more information about the sponsor brand, the location you have planted your tree, and the reforestation project you have planted it through.
Everyone’s a Winner
And it’s as simple as that; a win-win-win situation really. Us regular folks get to plant a free tree every day and discover new and useful eco-friendly products and brands (honestly most of the sponsor brands are genuinely very good), eco-conscious brands are provided with an effective platform for reaching new and relevant customers, and most importantly, thousands and thousands of trees are planted in areas where they are most needed.
A tree-mendous (or three-mendous even?) combination of favourable outcomes if you ask me.
Plant Even More Trees With a Paid Plan
And if planting one free tree per day isn’t enough to float your boat, funk your trunk or rumble your jungle, Treeapp also offers paid options where you can fund the planting of even more trees, either through gifts to friends, one-off donations, or monthly tree-planting plans.
Business plans are even available so companies can reduce their environmental impact by planting trees through Treeapp.
If planting one free tree per day isn’t enough to float your boat, funk your trunk or rumble your jungle, Treeapp also offers paid options where you can fund the planting of even more trees, either through gifts to friends, one-off donations, or monthly tree-planting plans.
So it seems Treeapp has got people and businesses and everyone covered when it comes to planting trees as efficiently as possible, but how do we know that these trees are really actually genuinely real actual trees that go into the ground and grow big and tall and suck carbon out of the atmosphere and make the world a better place and actually do what they’re supposed to be doing in the way they’re supposed to be doing it?
Good question that isn’t it? A very good question indeed.
And you know what? The answer isn’t half bad either.
But How Do We Know Treeapp is Planting Real Trees That Make a Difference?
To ensure that any tree planted through Treeapp has a positive effect on the local habitat and the environment as a whole, Treeapp chooses their planting partners carefully. They only work with organisations that offer full transparency about their tree-planting operations, and who continuously monitor the health of the forests in question.
Why Tree-Planting Needs to Be Done Right
Unfortunately, not all trees are created (or planted) equal. There are many examples out there of tree-planting initiatives that really don’t have any positive impact on the environment whatsoever. (And can sometimes actually be damaging to the environment and local habitats!)
This can involve the wrong trees being planted in the wrong places which can negatively affect biodiversity. Or it might be that suitable trees are planted but never grow past the infancy stage due to lack of care or premature ‘harvesting’. Monocultures, which involve a single species of tree being planted across a vast area, are also a big issue. These monoculture ‘plantations’, again, are very damaging to biodiversity and can also be detrimental to soil health, cause depletion of water sources, actually directly lead to air and water pollution due to pesticide use, and in some cases, can even displace entire communities when their land is taken over by these plantations.
Due to these kinds of issues and many others, it is essential that a great deal of care and thought is put into ensuring that the right kinds of trees are planted in the right kinds of areas, in the right way, at the right time. Treeapp ensures this is the case with their trees by partnering with 7 internationally recognised and respected tree-planting NGO’s from around the world, and also by consulting with 5 forestry experts about these tree-planting operations. (Always best to consult with the experts really isn’t it?)
Treeapp’s Internationally Recognised Tree-Planting Partners
To ensure that any tree planted through Treeapp has a positive effect on the local habitat and the environment as a whole, Treeapp chooses their planting partners carefully. They only work with organisations that offer full transparency about their tree-planting operations, and who continuously monitor the health of the forests in question.
It is essential that a great deal of care and thought is put into ensuring that the right kinds of trees are planted in the right kinds of areas, in the right way, at the right time.
All trees planted must also be protected by contracts with these local planting partners and local governments, to ensure that each tree is allowed to grow to its full potential, sequester as much carbon as possible, and generally grow to do all the wonderful things a fully grown tree can do.
Treeapp currently works with 7 tree-planting NGOs around the world, each of which ticks all of the tree-shaped requirements mentioned above. And here they are!:
Eden Reforestation Projects:
This phenomenal NGO was launched in Ethiopia in 2005, and ‘is on a mission to provide fair wage employment to impoverished villagers as agents of global forest restoration. They are known to hire the poorest villagers to grow, plant, and guard native forest species to maturity on a massive scale.
Eden Projects currently partners with Treeapp to plant trees in Haiti, Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya, Nepal, and Indonesia.
Green Ethiopia:
Green Ethiopia is a Swiss charitable foundation founded in the year 2000. The foundation works in Ethiopia on afforestation projects that fight against erosion and desertification.
They are currently partnered with Treeapp to help plant trees in Ethiopia.
Friends of Usambara:
Friends of Usambara, an NGO founded in 1997, works to mobilize and empower the local Tanzanian community in the Eastern Arc Mountains to combat desertification, regenerate forests, and promote sustainable forestry.
This NGO focuses entirely on planting trees in the Usambara Mountains in Tanzania, and partners with Treeapp to reforest the mountainous region of Lushoto.
Greening Burundi:
Quite a young but ambitious NGO, Greening Burundi was only officially registered in September 2019, having started as a community initiative three years earlier.
Greening Burundi is on a mission to regenerate Burundian forests by employing local villagers for planting and monitoring purposes. They have already planted over 800,000 trees in Burundi to date, and are partnering with Treeapp to continue and accelerate this terrific work, with the ultimate goal of planting 50 Million trees in Burundi.
Go download Treeapp now and you can help make that target become a reality!
Renascedd:
Renascedd is a Guinean NGO founded in 2016 on a mission to ‘sustainably improve the quality of the environment through their tree planting activities.’
To achieve this goal, they are currently developing large-scale planting projects in eight locations across Guinea in both urban and rural areas. With the help of their official partner Treeapp, of course!
Progreso:
Set up in 1993, Progreso has been working for nearly 30 years to support local farmer collectives to sustainably manage Peruvian forests and agriculture.
They are now officially partnered with Treeapp in a joint effort to equip local smallholders with the knowledge and tools to grow and care for their own trees.
Cepan:
Cepan is a non-profit institution founded by professors and graduate students at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil in the year 2000.
Now officially partnered with Treeapp, Cepan’s mission is to ‘generate strategic solutions’ to conserve Brazil’s biodiversity. They do this through coordinated forest regeneration projects, mainly in the eastern regions of Brazil.
Consulting With the Experts
Treeapp consults with 5 forestry experts who review all NGO operations before approving them.
So if you’ve taken the time to read about Treeapp’s planting partners in the section above, or maybe even checked out their websites, you’ll probably have come to the conclusion that every tree planted through Treeapp really is a genuine tree, planted in an appropriate place, in an appropriate way, with the utmost care and attention. The tree-planting partners in question have all been passionately founded with exactly this mission in mind, after all.
And it’s no surprise that all of Treeapp’s planting partners are the real deal when it comes to planting trees appropriately, because Treeapp actually consults with 5 forestry experts who review all NGO operations before approving them. This basically makes it as certain as possible that each tree planted through Treeapp will have a positive impact on the environment.
Well maybe before we fully make up our minds about that, it might be nice to know a little about how exactly all these trees are planted? Are they just dumped in the ground and then left there to grow? Are they monitored? Assessed? Cared for? Who knows?
Well I’ll tell you who knows; You do! If you keep on reading that is 😉
How and Where Does Treeapp Plant All These Trees?
I’ve already touched on the planting locations in the section above, but how does Treeapp choose these locations? And how does the whole planting, monitoring, assessing process work? (It works like a well thought out, no messing about tree-planting plan, that’s how!)
Choosing the Planting Locations
Currently, Treeapp has active planting sites in Haiti, Brazil and Peru across South America, Guinea, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique throughout Africa, and Nepal and Indonesia in Asia.
Of course, it all begins with figuring out where trees actually need to be planted. This is done based on a ‘thorough evaluation of local needs, planting methods, and monitoring efforts.’ As I mentioned earlier, Treeapp consults with 5 forestry experts before final tree-planting sites and planting partners are chosen.
Currently, Treeapp has active planting sites in Haiti, Brazil and Peru across South America, Guinea, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique throughout Africa, and Nepal and Indonesia in Asia. All these sites have been carefully chosen using expert advice to ensure that all trees planted have the maximum positive impact on local communities, habitats, and the environment in general.
But hey, what the heck is actually happening on the ground at these sites?
Planting the Trees
So it turns out, planting trees isn’t just as simple as plonking them in the ground wherever you so please and then running off into the sunset like a plonker feeling chuffed with yourself! A lot of care, attention, and planning is required to ensure that the trees have the best chance of flourishing, and that they compliment the local habitat, and each other. For this reason, there are certain processes that take place at Treeapp planting sites:
- First, each planting site is inspected, and assessments are made regarding the optimal tree-planting capacity, which combination of species are appropriate for the area, what spacing is needed between the trees, and what the best time of year is to plant each species. (Planting time always varies depending on species and location)
- Once all these super important decisions have been made, the trees can be primed for planting. Usually, this involves the trees spending 3-6 months in ‘tree nurseries’ until they reach sapling size, at which time they are then planted in the ground.
- Once planted, all trees are then regularly monitored as they grow, and are protected by contracts to ensure they are not cut down prematurely.
- *Super-cool fact: At least 15+ appropriate tree species are planted at each Treeapp planting site to improve biodiversity and to help successfully restore entire local ecosystems. Treeapp only ever plants native species at planting sites, never invasive ones.
And there you have it. That’s how Treeapp makes sure that all trees planted through the app are the right trees in the right places at the right time in the right way, and that the trees not only survive but thrive until they’re old and grey! (Well maybe not grey per se, but you know what I mean)
A lot of care, attention, and planning is required to ensure that the trees have the best chance of flourishing, and that they compliment the local habitat, and each other.
Buuuuuuuuuuuut. Like, how do we really really actually know for sure that these trees are really being planted? I mean, couldn’t it all be one great big tree-shaped hoax???
How Do We Know The Trees are Actually Being Planted?
Seen above are just some screenshots from my own Treeapp profile which provide details about the impact my Tree-planting activities have had in different areas. This only shows a snippet of the info provided. There are extensive galleries relating to each planting-location available, with images and videos, and regular updates on tree-planting stats etc, so you can be quite sure that your trees are really being planted and cared for, and ultimately, are having a positive impact on the environment.
Breaking news just in!: Treeapp is not a hoax, folks! Haha. To offer proof that indeed, the trees we plant through Treeapp are genuinely actually being planted, Treeapp does a number of things:
- They provide images and videos of the planting activities occurring.
- Where possible, they also provide drone footage of planting sites, and before and after pictures.
- Updates are also provided about the wildlife which returns to planting sites not long after planting occurs.
- Finally, Treeapp is able to use geolocation and sampling to locate and calculate the number of trees planted in each location.
So now we’ve got the trees in the ground, growing tall and proud, ecosystems coming back to life, wildlife rejoining the party. I mean, what more could you want?
Well actually, there is more! Because Treeapp is about more than just planting trees.
Supporting Local Communities
In all of Treeapp’s planting operations, jobs and therefore a source of income is made available to people in the local communities, meaning the tree-planting is beneficial for local people as well as local habitats. But there are some particular initiatives Treeapp are involved in that stand out in terms of offering community support:
- In Nepal, Treeapp plants fruit trees with women-led groups to help promote gender equality in rural societies. Tastily, these fruit trees also provide a nice juicy harvest for the community each year.
- In Tanzania, Treeapp supports educational programmes where children learn about the benefits of reforestation. (Which hopefully means some of these kids will grow up to become tree-experts and continue making the world a better place!)
- In Indonesia, mangroves are planted to help mitigate flooding, which is beneficial for local communities both economically, and stress-wise!
- In Burundi, Treeapp supports plastic-free nurseries and electric bicycles for transporting seedlings up hilly areas, bringing a whole other kind of sustainability to the area.
- In Brazil, the indigineous Geraizerios people are provided with some additional income by gathering seeds for Treeapp.
In all of Treeapp’s planting operations, jobs and therefore a source of income is made available to people in the local communities, meaning the tree-planting is beneficial for local people as well as local habitats.
So clearly Treeapp’s work so far seems to be a roaring success both for local environments and communities, but how successful exactly have they been? Well, let’s take a little look at those numbers, shall we!? (We shall!)
Treeapp’s Success So Far
Treeapp has already managed to plant over 400,000 trees, across 3 continents, and 13 planting locations. This amounts to an area of over 2 million metres squared, an area about the size of flipping Monaco!
Treeapp has only been active for just over a year, having launched in April 2020, but they have already accomplished some amazing things in that time.
They recently released their ‘impact report’ for their first year live if you’d like to peruse through all the treemendous details, but here’s a little breakdown of their success so far:
- After one year live, Treeapp had attracted over 40,000 users, a number which has since grown to over 45,000!
- With the help of those users (I planted my 107th tree through Treeapp today!), Treeapp has already managed to plant over 400,000 trees, across 3 continents, and 13 planting locations. This amounts to an area of over 2 million metres squared, an area about the size of flipping Monaco!
- Treeapp has already collaborated with over 100 sustainable brand sponsors to date.
- The app has already reached ‘app of the day’ on the Apple app store, and ‘top 10 apps’ on the Google Play store.
- Treeapp even partnered with UK electronic group Disclosure last November on a collaboration t-shirt, with each t-shirt sold resulting in a tree being planted. You can actually still purchase the t-shirts on the Disclosure web store if you like!
Not a bad year all-in-all I reckon for our good friends at Treeapp. But what about the next year? And the year after that? And the year after that? And, well, what about the future in general?
What Does the Future Hold for Treeapp?
Well I’m no psychic or anything like that, and neither are the folks at Treeapp (I assume so, I mean who knows, maybe they are a little psychic?), so I can’t really tell you what the future holds, can I?
But all silliness aside, Treeapp do have some big big plans for the coming months and years.
There will be new NGO partnerships bringing Treeapp planting sites further around the globe, new features on the app so users can check the growth of their trees, and even a marketplace so users can buy from their favourite sustainable brands directly through Treeapp.
Treeapp is also in the process of becoming a certified B Corporation, which is a certification granted only to companies with the highest standards of environmental and social performance. To become a B Corporation a company actually has to alter its legal structure so that environmental and social impacts must be accounted for as well as financial concerns, in every decision made. I would imagine that Treeapp was probably structured this way from the get-go, but still, soon enough they’ll be officially certified as an environmentally and socially super-lovely company. (You can learn more about B Corporations in this super-lovely article I prepared earlier!)
There will be new NGO partnerships bringing Treeapp planting sites further around the globe, new features on the app so users can check the growth of their trees, and even a marketplace so users can buy from their favourite sustainable brands directly through Treeapp.
Finally, Treeapp also plans to organise a local tree-planting event around London in the near future, which I reckon will probably be very fun indeed.
Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be in London to attend this Treeapp tree-planting bonanza, but one thing’s for sure, I will still be planting a tree that day, with a few simple swipes of my phone screen, as I sip on my cup of green tea.
And that is more than good enough for me.
How to Download Treeapp and/or Become a Treeapp Brand Ambassador
- Download Treeapp: If you’d like to download Treeapp (currently only available in the UK and Ireland, but surely will be downloadable in other locations soon), you can do so here.
- Become a Treeapp Ambassador: If you’d like to become an ambassador for Treeapp, where you help to spread the word, attend Treeapp events and generally make a bit of Treeapp-related noise in exchange for exclusive perks and input into product design and direction, you can do that, here!
And that’s really it from me today folks. I hope you enjoyed the article, and now, what the tree are you waiting for?
Get planting!
About the Author
Adam Millett is a freelance writer for hire who specialises in sustainability and environmental issues. He believes the economy should be circular, businesses should make the world a better place, and that effective content is the best way to spread the word about sustainability. Visit his website at wordchameleon.com if you want to bring your vision of sustainability to life.
Listen To My Debut EP, ‘Aliens’, at the Links Below
I usually try to do a feature length article for A Wall Of Hope each month. Most months I manage to do one (they take a lot of time and work and effort you know all things considered!), but some months I am busy with other things and an article is not possible.
This month, I was busy releasing my debut EP, ‘Aliens’. So this short promotion article is all there is on A Wall Of Hope this month I’m afraid! (Yes I did just refer to my own EP as ‘unmissable’, but you can’t get anywhere in today’s world without a bit of shameless marketing now can you?) 😉
Aliens is a concept album through which, using the medium of spoken word/rap music, I offer my thoughts about why our world is such a mess right now, and how we might move towards a brighter future, if only we could all come together somehow.
I won’t say any more than that, as my thoughts are probably best explained through the lyrics on the EP itself! So if you’re feeling super kind and curious today, you can have a listen to Aliens on Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, or whatever your chosen platform is at the links below. Thank you so much.
Links to Aliens EP
Aliens on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4YzvZUNDWExtJ5gO2t50Sv?si=xaT-0Li_Spasx2WSCsQVrw
Aliens on Bandcamp: https://adamcats.bandcamp.com/album/aliens
Aliens on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-891498173/sets/aliens
About the Author
Adam Millett is a freelance writer for hire who specialises in sustainability and environmental issues. He believes the economy should be circular, businesses should make the world a better place, and that effective content is the best way to spread the word about sustainability. Visit his website at wordchameleon.com if you want to bring your vision of sustainability to life.
As is normal here on A Wall Of Hope, this is not a sponsored kinda post! This is also not an ‘Adam gets free funky pants in exchange for writing this post’ kinda post!
I am not employed by Ashanti Empress, nor have I received any cash money or free gifts for writing this post. All Ashanti Empress items I showcase in this post, I have purchased myself, because I think they’re flaming amazing!
I decided to write this post (getting sick of the word ‘post’ yet?) because initially I was wowed by the beauty of the products Ashanti Empress makes, and then, when I looked into the brand itself, its origins, and how it operates, I realised it’s probably one of the best brands I’ve ever come across. Not only does Ashanti Empress make, honestly, the funkiest items of clothing I have ever owned, they also do it in a loving, sustainable way, that improves the lives of everybody who comes into contact with the brand.
So, with that in mind, here is the super lovely, super inspirational, super FUNKY Ashanti Empress story.
Funky Pants Are the Bestest Pants
Do you know where you can get the funkiest trousers you ever did see and loads of other super-funky offerings too? Do you!?
Did you ever have one of those days where you suddenly feel the urge to find a fine fabulous pair of funky funky trousers but you can’t find a pair that’s funky for the planet too?
Because all the funky trousers you can find are made from un-funky materials, under un-funky working conditions, in an un-funky, mass-produced, junky up the planet kind of way?
But I want funky not junky thank you very much!
(You know, when you look up the meaning of the word ‘funky,’ there are multiple meanings. In some silly sausage-shaped circles, the word funky can actually have negative connotations, and can mean things like ‘musty,’ ‘weird,’ or ‘unpleasant.’ Well I say naaaaaaay to all that! For the purposes of this post, whenever I say funky, I am talking about the good funky, the spunky funky; the groooooooovaaaaay funky. Funky is a tremendous word so forget about all those silly negative definitions while you’re reading this post. While you’re reading this post, Funky=Life!)
Well well well well.
I had one of those days recently, but after trawling through multiple mass-produced brands that offered funky looking trousers made out of all sorts of plastic and poison and nonsense, I finally found a brand that makes proper funky trousers (and other funky things too), in a way that’s also funky for people and planet and the creatures that span it.
So, do you know where you can get the funkiest trousers you ever did see and loads of other super-funky offerings too? Do you!? All made from super-funky (remember, this is the good funky we’re talking about!) materials in super-funky working conditions in a super-funky handmade kinda way?
Yes yes yes yes! You’d be correct if you guessed:
Ashanti Empress, that’s where.
But what the hecklebreath is Ashanti Empress anyways!???
What is Ashanti Empress?
Ashanti Empress is an ‘ethical African fashion brand’ based between Ghana in West Africa, and Bristol in the UK.
According to the Ashanti website, ‘the brand was born from the idea of using fashion as a means to address issues of poverty, capacity building, youth unemployment, and female empowerment in Ghana.’
To do this, they work directly with Ghanain tailors, seamstresses, and craftspeople, and provide them with reliable, well-paid work and training opportunities. And all of this is done while creating some of the funkiest garments on planet earth!
The ridiculously vibrant fabrics used to create these funky garments are sourced directly from the Kejetia market in Kumasi. Kumasi is the capital city of the Ashanti region in southern Ghana, which gives nice meaning to the brand’s name, Ashanti Empress.
As well as creating economic and creative opportunities for local Ghanaian folks, Ashanti Empress also donates 10% of all profits to the Blessed Mount Mary’s school in the Ashanti region of Ghana, which really cements Ashanti Empress in my mind as a truly wholesome, positive force in the world.
But where did this positive force come from?
(Isn’t it great fun ending every section with a pressing question, hehe, like ending an episode of a TV show on a big filthy cliffhanger. But sure don’t we all have Netflix these days? You can just click onto the next episode straight away so what the heck does it matter if there’s a cliffhanger at the end of an episode? Well you’re right there Ted, and the same applies here. If you would like to know the answer to the pressing question of ‘Where did this positive force come from?,’ erm. Just keep reading dude, all will be revealed!)
As well as creating economic and creative opportunities for local Ghanaian folks, Ashanti Empress also donates 10% of all profits to the Blessed Mount Mary’s school in the Ashanti region of Ghana, which really cements Ashanti Empress in my mind as a truly wholesome, positive force in the world.
Where Did Ashanti Empress Come From?
Ashanti Empress was founded by a super-creative human named Ruby Maya from England, but although the brand has only been producing its funky offerings for sale since 2015, this particular origin story goes back a little further than that.
According to Ruby herself, the Ashanti Empress journey really kicked off as far back as 2009, when she travelled to Ghana for the first time as an 18-year-old.
While there, Ruby spent about six months volunteering and working with a local school. Yes. YES! You guessed it again! The school Ruby worked at when she was 18 was Blessed Mount Mary’s school, the same school that receives 10% of Ashanti Empress profits today!
After her first experience in Ghana, Ruby came back to the UK and studied International Relations and Politics in Sheffield. (So it seems that she had no formal fashion training at all, which might explain why her designs are so distinctly unique.)
While in Sheffield, Ruby started setting up music events called ‘Ashanti Beats’ nights, with a focus on African music and ‘anything that makes you feel tropical and wanna dance.’ All the profits from these events are also donated to Blessed Mount Mary’s school back in Ghana. (Ruby has since moved to Bristol, and has continued these Ashanti Beats nights there, but because of a little thing called flaming Corona I would imagine they’re on pause at the moment. Goodness, just imagine the first Ashanti Beats night when the lockdowns are over. Just imagine the first anything night when the lockdowns are over! Hooooollllaaaaaay smooookes that’s gonna be fun.)
Clearly, her experience working at this school, and of Ghana in general, must have had a profound impact on Ruby, as she has been helping to raise funds for the school and taking regular trips back to Ghana ever since. (What a flaming legend.)
It was during these trips back to Ghana that Ruby started going to the markets and buying funky fabrics and making her own funky funky clothes. Unsurprisingly, each time she returned to the UK wearing the clothes she had made for herself, people loved them. So during a trip to Ghana in 2015, she decided to invest ‘about £200’ to make ‘about 50 things’ to try and sell them to folks back home. On her return to the UK after that trip, she sold them all!
You could probably say that those first 50 or so garments marked the official beginning of Ashanti Empress, and Ruby has been going back to Ghana, creating new things, making connections with tailors and fabric sellers, and building up her marvellous brand every since.
During a trip to Ghana in 2015, Ruby decided to invest ‘about £200’ to make ‘about 50 things’ to try and sell them to folks back home. On her return to the UK after that trip, she sold them all!
Now I could do it, I could say something like ‘but what is it exactly that makes her brand so special?’
But I won’t do it this time. No cliffhangers in this part of the article, no sir!
Here’s a look at exactly what makes Ashanti Empress such a special brand.
Why is Ashanti Empress Such a Good Brand?
Ruby stresses the importance of ‘making sure everyone’s getting a good deal out of the business.’
Ruby stresses the importance of ‘making sure everyone’s getting a good deal out of the business.’ (Just imagine if every business owner on earth thought that way.)
And when she says everyone, she really does mean everyone, and then some!
Here’s how Ashanti Empress is helping to improve people’s lives and make the world a better place:
Empowering Ghanaian Tailors and Craftspeople
By purchasing fabrics directly from the markets in Ghana, and working directly with local Ghanaian tailors, Ashanti Empress is helping people in the local community to thrive.
Ruby guarantees fair wages and consistent work for the 35 tailors, seamstresses, and craftspeople she works with. These tailors all run their own tailoring shops and are commissioned to complete regular bulk orders for Ashanti Empress.
The consistent income generated from these orders has empowered many of these Ghanaian tailors to increase the capacity of their own businesses, purchase new equipment like sewing machines, and even move from renting to owning their own work premises.
But don’t take mine or Ruby’s word for that! Here’s a video of the tailors themselves explaining the positive impact Ashanti Empress has had on them!
Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due!
One of my favourite things about Ashanti Empress is that they allow you to see exactly who it is that has made your clothes! This makes it all so personal and just makes you love the clothes even more.
Here’s a page from the Ashanti website showcasing all the tailors and designers who help make these funky garments possible.
As you’ll see later on in this article, the man who’s responsible for making my super funky funky trousers is Francis Owosu; what a funky funky legend.
Being Kind to the Planet
Some of the most popular Ashanti designs, known as the ‘colour me crazy’ patchwork designs, are made from 100% recycled fabrics! These recycled fabrics are leftover cutoffs from other tailors in the area that are collected and repurposed to create the extravagantly exuberant patchwork designs.
Ashanti Empress products are handmade in small batches, so there’s none of that mass-produced, industrialised, fast-fashion, landfill-expanding madness that you get from the more commercial brands.
The majority of the clothes are made from locally-sourced wax cotton and other natural materials, and are robustly produced to stand the test of time. So you should be able to cherish them for years and years, and once you finally do wear them out, they’ll be much kinder on the planet when you dispose of them compared to the plastic-based garments synonymous with fast fashion outlets.
(It must be stated that although the majority of Ashanti Empress products are made from natural materials, the stretchy leggings are made from a spandex/polyester blend, which isn’t ideal, as these are both synthetic, plastic-based fibers. These are also the only products from the brand that are not made in Ghana, so this is probably one area that the brand can improve. Saying that, after doing some digging, it seems that even the most ethically produced stretchy leggings out there all contain at least some synthetic fibers, so maybe stretchy leggings are destined to always come with certain environmental drawbacks?)
Some of the most popular Ashanti designs, known as the ‘colour me crazy’ patchwork designs, are made from 100% recycled fabrics! These recycled fabrics are leftover cutoffs from other tailors in the area that are collected and repurposed to create the extravagantly exuberant patchwork designs.
The popular ‘colour me crazy’ style designs like the ones above are made from unused cutoffs collected from other tailors in the area, and the backpacks are even lined with recycled flour sacks from a local flour mill to give them extra strength!
Ashanti also recycles fabrics left over from producing their own clothes into funky accessories like headbands, wallets and purses, and even makes some of the most eye-catching backpacks you ever will see and lines them with recycled flour sacks from a local flour mill for extra strength!
Now that surely has to be the funkiest example of recycling I have ever seen! (Maybe they should call it, funkcycling???)
Helping the Next Generation to Flourish
By purchasing products from Ashanti Empress, it’s clear to see, you really are helping to improve a lot of lives, and to make the world just a little bit better, and funkier of course!
As I’ve touched on before, 10% of all Ashanti Empress profits are donated to Blessed Mount Mary’s school in the Ashanti region of Ghana; the school Ruby worked at back in 2009.
So far, the funds donated to the school have helped to accomplish the following wonderful things:
- Provide yearly sponsorship to 18 of the most underprivileged children in the local area.
- Build two new classrooms in the school.
- Build a library.
- Invest in a school bus.
Moving forward, the Ashanti donations will go towards building a toilet block, and installing running water in the school in the near future.
By purchasing products from Ashanti Empress, it’s clear to see, you really are helping to improve a lot of lives, and to make the world just a little bit better, and funkier of course!
Kids are the future, and Ashanti Empress is empowering them to make sure that future is a bright one.
Speaking of bright things, well isn’t that another way Ashanti Empress is making the world a better, funkier place!? By brightening it up a little!
Helping Folks Around the World Look Funkaaaaaay!
A funkier world is a better world, and as you have probably guessed by now, one thing Ashanti Empress is certainly good at, is brining the funk!
Literally everything they make is super funky, so probably best to check out the website for a proper look, but here’s a few of my funky favourites.
I mean myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy goooooodness! Just look at all that funky funk! ❤
And remember, these Ashanti Empress designs are not mass-produced, and therefore they are all pretty much limited edition. The markets Ruby purchases the fabrics from in Ghana usually only sell the patterns in twelve yard pieces, and some of the particular patterns are very rare.
So if you see a design you like, and it’s in your size, probably best to get that order in pronto pronto pronto triple triple pronto!
When I was buying my second pair of Ashanti pants (hehe, Ashanti pants, funny!), to begin with they weren’t available in my size, so I kept checking the website to see if they became available and one day — one glorious glorious day — they did become available in my size, so I bought them.
When I refreshed the page after buying them, they were no longer available in my size, which means that just one new garment had been produced in my size, and once it was purchased, boom! It was out of stock again.
And remember, these Ashanti Empress designs are not mass-produced, and therefore they are all pretty much limited edition. The markets Ruby purchases the fabrics from in Ghana usually only sell the patterns in twelve yard pieces, and some of the particular patterns are very rare.
For me, the super limited availability of each design makes them that little bit more desirable, as there’s very little chance you’ll be rocking your glorious Ashanti pants at a music festival and the next minute someone strolls by you nonchalantly wearing the exact same design as if you bought them from flaming H&M or somewhere! Very unlikely that will happen with Ashanti Pants!
But anyways, enough rumbling and rambling. How did I get on with my Ashanti pants you might ask!? Do I actually like them? (Not much of a cliffhanger here, you already know the answer!)
The Funkiest Garments I Ever Did Own
Behold, as referred to previously: the funkiest trousers you ever did see! (I wasn’t able to choose just one design.)
In all their funky funky glory, here are my two favourite items of clothing. On the left in the big picture, with the groovy red, yellow and white geometric shapes down the side, are the ‘Picasso’ trackies, which you can purchase here. On the right, with the blue, yellow, pink and black kind of honeycomb segmenty looking things, are the ‘Ntansa Ankara’ trackies, which you can purchase here. Both designs are flipping tremendous. You may notice that the sun came out as I was modelling the Picassos, and so I have touched up the Ntansa Ankara images a little to try and bring the vibrancy of the colours through a little more, but honestly, these photos still don’t do them justice. They’re even more wonderously vibrant in real life. (Also, yes, these photos were taken in the West of flaming Ireland in the middle of February! Like my goodness, look at those blue skies! It’s like the weather sensed that I was wearing these super vibrant trousers and reset itself accordingly. Flaming phenomenal stuff!
And I can confirm after seeing these products up close, and wearing each of them for days and days in a row, that they are both made from super high-quality materials, and really do look even better up close than they do in the photos.
The patterns on the fabric are incredibly vibrant, and the fabric itself is thick, stretchy, and robustly designed.
I can confirm after seeing these products up close, and wearing each of them for days and days in a row, that they are both made from super high-quality materials, and really do look even better up close than they do in the photos.
Based on the quality of the products alone, I would absolutely recommend buying from Ashanti Empress, and that’s not even taking into account all the other great stuff they do.
Speaking of which, a quick word for the man who actually made my super-funky trousers; Francis Owosu, who you can see in the image below.
According to the Ashanti Empress website, Mr. Owosu has been a tailor for over 10 years now and owns his own little shop. He is disabled and has difficulty walking so he relies solely on tailoring to support his family. He makes all of the Ashanti tracksuit trousers.
So to Mr. Francis Owosu, as the man who produced the funkiest garments I have ever owned in my life, I thank you dearly, and wish you and your family the very best for a prosperous future. ❤
And speaking of a prosperous future!
Funkier Clothes For a Funkier World
The more people who know about Ashanti Empress, the funkier the world will be. So, what are you waiting for? Start spreading the funky funky word!
Ashanti Empress is a very young brand, born from a love for the funky things in life and a desire to make the world a better place for everybody.
They make incredible products, in an incredible way, and serve as a perfect example of how we can use business to build a better world.
No doubt Ashanti Empress will only grow stronger and funkier from here.
The more people who know about them, the funkier the world will be.
So, what are you waiting for?
Start spreading the funky funky word!
About the Author
Adam Millett is a freelance writer for hire who specialises in sustainability and environmental issues. He believes the economy should be circular, businesses should make the world a better place, and that effective content is the best way to spread the word about sustainability. Visit his website at wordchameleon.com if you want to bring your vision of sustainability to life.
A Wall of Hope First!
A first for A Wall of Hope; a guest post!
In this post, Jess Lohmann, author of children’s eco-fantasy book ‘Lily Bowers and the Uninvited Guest’ discusses what the book is all about, her inspiration for writing it, and her hope that it will show children everywhere that they have the power to change this world for the better.
Have a read and spread the word about this beautifully inspirational children’s tale, which is the first of a three-book ‘eco-fantasy’ series.
Lily Bowers and the Uninvited Guest – By Jess Lohmann
“Nature inspires. Nature heals. Nature needs our help. Mother Nature is calling upon us to tune in to nature and respect all she takes care of.”
Jess Lohmann, Speaker for Animals & Nature
Hello
I’m Jess Lohmann, Speaker for Animals & Nature – through my writing I help children and young people connect with and get active protecting Mother Nature. A Wall of Hope exists for “positivity, for inspiration, and for reasons to believe in ourselves and this wonderful world around us”. I’m 100% aligned with this and hope I can do this justice with my own message of R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
I’m here to help reignite (com)passion for Mother Nature, particularly through the eyes of children and young people, who’ll be responsible for stewarding our planet from today and all the tomorrows to come. I’ll be sharing snippets from my own story and also including thoughts from Lily Bowers, the ten-year-old girl in my eco fantasy books who connects so well with children, animals and nature alike.
About Lily Bowers and the Uninvited Guest
Lily Bowers and the Uninvited Guest was published on April 24, 2019: World Day for Laboratory Animals. The German version (Lily Bowers und der ungebetene Gast) was published on December 10, 2020: World Animal Day. It’s currently being translated into Spanish and Finnish as well.
When Mother Nature herself is threatened by animal cruelty, only Lily can save her. To do this, she must mobilize all her new animal friends in her beloved forest. The same forest where the Brothers Grimm once travelled. But first, there’s a horrible bully at her new school to deal with. Lily knows she’ll need to call on all her courage to convince the rest of the world that nature must come first.
This book is the first of an eco fantasy series that shows kids they really do have the power and influence to make a difference and change the world. And save animals. The first book is about animal testing, the second one (already in the pipeline) focuses on the animal farming industry and the third one will be about saving marine life.
Lily and her friends (2-legged, 4-legged and more) are on an urgent mission to address animal testing. We see caring Lily learn about the issue and become increasingly impassioned when she registers the impact. What to do about it? Without giving everything away, suffice to say that Lily and Co. embark on a journey, packed with learning, yet realistic in the highs and lows that she experiences in tackling a seemingly insurmountable challenge.
Where did it all start?
My parents raised me to respect nature and animals. My mom rescued wild animals, nursed them back to health and released them. We went camping, lived near a forest area growing up on Long Island, New York. I worked for veterinarians throughout high school and college.
After they passed, I realized I wanted to make more of an impact and inspire others to do the same because right now, we’re destroying all that we need to be able to not only thrive on this planet, but also to survive.
After reading a book about creativity — Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert — I felt inspired to write. Since I was so connected with nature, I decided to inspire children, specifically preteens/juniors, and show them they have the power and influence to change the world. It then became very clear to me why I was on this beautiful Earth:
To save as many animals as humanly possible by promoting a deep ecological philosophy that all life matters (more on this later).
Mother Nature is pleading for us to work together to create a harmonious world full of healthy choices and opportunities for all animals, humans included.
A world with no more child labour, sweatshops, animal abuse and testing, harmful pesticides, GMOs and chemicals on the foods, clothes, cosmetics, meds and other products we consume.
And a world without poverty and war.
Why ‘eco fantasy’ works
I feel that when we respect Mother Nature and all she takes care of, we’re at peace with ourselves. When we’re at peace with ourselves, we’re at peace with others. And when we’re at peace with others, we’ll have world peace.
This is the main message in my book and my reader newsletter (Talk about Nature!) and I feel it can help heal our souls — and our planet.
‘Eco fantasy’ is my chosen genre for communicating with my readership. I’ve taken the most fitting elements from ‘deep ecology’ and ‘magic realism’ to encourage children and young people to build a movement to help Mother Nature.
According to Britannica, ‘deep ecology’ is:
“an environmental philosophy and social movement based in the belief that humans must radically change their relationship to nature from one that values nature solely for its usefulness to human beings to one that recognizes that nature has an inherent value.”
‘Magic realism’ is the perfect genre for eco fantasy as, according to Wikipedia, “it paints a realistic view of the modern world while also adding magical elements”. In essence, I don’t downplay the state of the world today. However, I do seek to add a touch of fantasy with Lily’s ability to speak to animals (the language of ‘Animalish’) and Mother Nature taking form through shape shifting.
Communicating my main message about ‘respect’
I will continue to use these creative tools and a similar approach throughout the Lily Bowers series to communicate the ‘respect’ message. I’m confident it will inspire, rather than finger wag and blame or shame, whilst despairing at the grimness of it all. For example, I’m vegan and aware that some members of the vegan community can be overly vocal at times in expressing their more militant views. However, the fact is that every human has their own values and views and that’s a good thing, because with our differences, we have the power to help create the respectful diverse world we want to live in together. But, we can only create this world if we respect each other at all times, even those who think differently. This is my philosophy and one that I’ll be embedding in Lily Bowers’ next mission to improve farm animal welfare in the upcoming book.
Contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The Lily Bowers series is being increasingly recognized as a vehicle for educators to engage with children and young people to help them learn about the big issues that matter and inspire them to make a positive difference. Even more effective is channelling this learning through the Sustainable Development Goals framework. The United Nation’s SDGs are “the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice”.
So, where does Lily fit into all this? Mother Nature’s certainly keeping her busy and asked her to team up to contribute to Goal #12 Climate Action, #14 Life Below Water and #15 Life on Land. If we don’t get these SDGs right, we will drive our own species into extinction and then nothing else matters.
Lily’s also taken Goal #17 Partnerships to heart – without Lily’s loyal band of animal and human friends to cheerlead and help, it would be so much harder.
Indeed, I’ve found partnering with others who are mission-aligned to be a great way to increase positive impact. There are so many active people out there who care deeply about nature and animals too. I’m teaming up with others working with children and young people to address the same SDGs, finding synergy in opportunities that present themselves, such as recently becoming Project #101 on We Make Change, a global platform of 20,000 change-makers volunteering their skills to address the challenges the world faces today.
Final words
Remember that you too can inspire others to create positive change through respectful communication, understanding and listening.
How to Contact the Author and Buy the Book!
- How to keep in touch – social media, website: https://jesslohmann.com
- Where to buy book: https://jesslohmann.com/lilybowers
- Jess on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicalohmann
- Founder of Ethical Brand Marketing: https://ethicalbrandmarketing.com
Showing The Billionaires How It’s Done
What would you buy if you won over £100 million on the lottery?
A fancy car? A whole load of fancy cars? A whole load of fancy houses with fancy garages where you could store all your fancy cars and never use them because you were off sailing from impossibly over-priced pretentiously pretentious port to impossibly over-priced pretentiously pretentious port on one of your multiple super yachts drinking £50k bottles of champagne for breakfast every morning while pondering which super car and super house and superly superflous ‘super’ indulgence you should spend some of your infinite ‘wealth’ on next? (Okay maybe you’d need a little more than £100 million for this kind of nonsense, but you know what I mean.)
On new year’s day 2019, while living in a rented terrace house in County Down, Frances and Patrick won £114.9 million on the EuroMillions lottery, and have since embarked on the ‘biggest lottery giveaway ever,’ giving over half their fortune away already in just less than two years.
It’s certainly a tempting lifestyle, and I can see how you might get sucked into it. Actually having that kind of money is incomprehensible to pretty much all of us, and it’s impossible for one to know how they’d react to it. It could go either way.
I’d love to think that I’d use the money for good; give most of it away to people in need, invest in nature conservation projects and try to fix the planet, use the money to try and end homelessness for good. Maybe even invest in alternative money projects so money would no longer be a thing and we could move on to a better system of trade that works for everybody? These are all lovely thoughts.
But it’s just as likely that I’d be off around the world dancing on diamond-plated tables wearing diamond-plated shoes, jetting off to all the best party spots and paying people to drive me around in diamond-plated super cars because I couldn’t be bothered to learn how to drive myself. Maybe I’d even try and use the money to genetically engineer a Penguin that can speak to humans and likes to party? Maybe even a diamond-plated party Penguin? I mean who flaming knows how they’d react to winning that kind of money?
Well two quietly wonderful folks who may have reacted in the best way possible to winning that kind of money are Frances and Patrick Connolly from Northern Ireland.
On new year’s day 2019, while living in a rented terrace house in County Down, Frances and Patrick won £114.9 million on the EuroMillions lottery, and have since embarked on the ‘biggest lottery giveaway ever,’ giving over half their fortune away already in just less than two years.
At the time of the win Frances stated that “It’s going to be so much fun giving it away”, and that “the pleasure for me is going to be seeing their faces.”
Well the generous couple have certainly lived up to that promise and put smiles on many many faces since.
Here’s a look at how Frances and Patrick Connolly are showing people with more money than sense how they can use their bewildering privilege to make the world a better place.
Taking Care of Family and Friends
After winning the gargantuan sum of money back in January 2019, Patrick Connolly stated that “I’ve got a wonderful wife, a wonderful family and wonderful friends, so this is the icing on the cake.”
I think it’s a wonderfully wholesome way of seeing things to consider family and friends the most important thing, with £114.9 million just being a welcome added extra. And it’s clear from the Connolly’s actions since winning the money that this was far from an empty statement, because as soon as their cake was covered in icing, they started scraping the icing back off and handing it out to the folks closest to them.
Within hours of winning the big prize, the couple started compiling a list of friends and families they wanted to help. They paid off mortgages for friends and family, gave all their nieces and nephews money to buy their own homes and bought homes for other friends and family, bought direct gifts for over 150 families, and generally secured the futures of the people closest to them. An incredible showing of generosity and a great example for all of us when we win the EuroMillions jackpot too!
Like any sane humans would do, the Connollys also secured their own future, buying a large bungalow with 5 acres of land near Hartlepool in the UK where they raised their kids. Apparently their estate agents were trying to show them castles and big country manors and they were having none of that extravagant nonsense, fair play to them.
Within hours of winning the big prize, the couple started compiling a list of friends and families they wanted to help. They paid off mortgages for friends and family, gave all their nieces and nephews money to buy their own homes and bought homes for other friends and family, bought direct gifts for over 150 families, and generally secured the futures of the people closest to them.
With financial futures secured for themselves and those closest to them, Frances and Patrick decided to spend the rest of the money on a fleet of environmentally questionable private jets and seventy five penthouse apartments in Las Vegas. Haha, just kidding, they did nothing of the sort!
With their loved ones taken care of, the Connollys immediately focused their attention on helping the wider community. What a pair of legendary legend legends.
Nourishing Communities Through Charity Work
Frances has been doing voluntary work since she was 9 years old, and before the lottery win she worked for years at the Aycliffe Young People’s Centre in England, so helping people in her community has always been a big part of her life. This did not come to a stop after she and Patrick hit the big time.
After helping out their family and friends, Frances and Patrick then committed assumedly a large chunk of their winnings to setting up two charities; the PFC Trust in Hartlepool, and the Kathleen Graham Trust in Northern Ireland.
Just as it’s incomprehensible to imagine what it’s like to win nearly £115 million, it’s also incomprehensible to imagine the scale of the collective impact Frances and Patrick’s charity work has already had on people, and the impact it will continue to have in the future.
The PFC Trust
The PFC Trust is dedicated to improving the lives and the life chances of the people of Hartlepool. The trust (so Frances and Patrick basically) provides funding for organisations that are already assisting people in the town. The charity’s guiding principal is about ‘helping people to help themselves,’ and they also strive to give guidance and to connect other relevant organisations where possible.
The trust has so far supported an organisation called ‘The Poolie Time Exchange’ (which ‘offers trial job interviews, advice on money management, mindfulness workshops and exchanges of skills and knowledge’), provided funds for Hartlepool College of Further Education, and assisted many other organisations as you can see on their website. (When you consider the amount of money that must go into funding all of these projects and organisations, you realise; that’s a whole lot of generosity right there!)
The Kathleen Graham Trust
The Kathleen Graham Trust was named after Frances’s late mother Kathleen, apparently quite a generous soul herself, and was founded ‘to support and enrich the lives of all sections of the communities in Strabane and Belfast.’
As you can see here, just like the PFC trust, this charity is already helping some incredible organisations to flourish, and has no doubt improved the lives of countless people throughout these communities. (I mean Lamborghinis and super yachts are super nice and all, but what about setting up charities that result in entire communities of young and vulnerable people having a better quality of life and more opportunities for success than they would have had before? My goodness, now that sounds like a proper show of wealth to me.)
Other Charity Work
As well as setting up and funding these two charities, Frances also set up a small charity shop in Hartlepool called ‘Jumpers and More’ which provides free clothes and toiletries for refugees who arrive with nothing, and for local families who lose possessions in fires. She has also helped to pull together local food providers and soup kitchens in the north-east of England into a consortium, working together to feed the hungry.
Just as it’s incomprehensible to imagine what it’s like to win nearly £115 million, it’s also incomprehensible to imagine the scale of the collective impact Frances and Patrick’s charity work has already had on people, and the impact it will continue to have in the future.
So many people have already been positively effected by this work, and when you take the butterfly effect into account, the mind actually begins to boggle.
And the boggling doesn’t stop there! Boggle boggle boggle, boggle.
As well as pouring money into their community-nourishing charities, Frances and Patrick just can’t seem to help themselves helping even more people outside of their official charity work.
Constant Generosity
It seems as if the Connollys have helped out pretty much everyone in need who’s crossed their path since their lottery win.
Apparently, Frances actually gets up at 6am these days to answer all the messages and emails she receives, and has been known to work 18 hours a day on her various charitable projects. Not exactly the kind of lifestyle you would expect a newly-minted multi-millionaire to lead!
Aside from all the good work they’re doing through their charities, they have also paid for a local Hartlepool-based charity that offers energy advice and affordable business space to install an elevator so that wheelchair users can access the upstairs offices. They have paid for a young father who was injured in an accident to modify his electric power chair so he can go on off-road explorations with his daughter once again. And they are also covering the cost for a young refugee boy to travel to his preferred secondary school for the remainder of his education.
Considering the nature of these kind folks, I’d imagine there are many more stories like these ones that have not been officially reported.
Apparently, Frances actually gets up at 6am these days to answer all the messages and emails she receives, and has been known to work 18 hours a day on her various charitable projects. Not exactly the kind of lifestyle you would expect a newly-minted multi-millionaire to lead!
In response to the Covid19 pandemic Frances even stated that “Patrick bought another business just to make sure people had work” during the crisis; a pretty decent reason for purchasing a new business if you ask me.
And that’s not all Frances and Patrick have done to help people during the pandemic. The wee saints!
Helping People During the Pandemic
2020 has been a challenging year for *nearly all of us.
The pandemic has put a strain on almost everybody in one way or another, with the notable exception of the world’s super rich who have actually become much richer during the crisis, the greedy evil expletiving expletives!
But unlike many of these wealth-hoarding parasitic demon creatures, Frances and Patrick have used their money to try and limit the effects of the pandemic on those around them as much as possible.
When you add all of this up, it’s clear that a lot of lives have been improved and protected as a result of the Connolly’s generosity, at a time when generosity is needed most.
They have bought new sewing machines for charity workers making PPE for health workers. They have contributed supplies to a charity making face visors for front line workers. They have funded hot meal deliveries for folks sheltering alone and in need, gifted £50 thank you vouchers for 150 frontline workers, contributed to a befriending service for those living alone, provided laptops for secondary school students to learn online, and even helped with a teddy bear’s picnic for 400 families.
They have also paid for hundreds of iPads so that elderly patients in nursing homes can contact their families, and so young carers are able to work from home. On top of this, they donated hundreds of pairs of pyjamas, nightdresses, and basic toiletries to care-home residents who were being discharged from hospitals without these things because families were not allowed to bring things from home.
When you add all of this up, it’s clear that a lot of lives have been improved and protected as a result of the Connolly’s generosity, at a time when generosity is needed most.
With Christmas on the horizon, it seems their generosity is not about to run out any time soon!
A Generous Christmas, and a Kinder New Year?
As this ridiculous year of frustration, heartbreak, and sheer madness comes to an end, Frances and Patrick’s story of unrelenting generosity, kindness, and compassion has given me a welcome sliver of hope for humanity, and for a better, kinder 2021.
At the end of such a miserable year, to help make Christmas that little bit better for people directly effected by Covid in Hartlepool and Northern Ireland, Frances and Patrick have decided to start playing Santa.
They have so far purchased a thousand gift-packs of ‘sweet-smelling toiletries’ as gifts for patients who will be in hospital on Christmas day, as well as dozens of computers, laptops and internet dongles for local youngsters who are caring for their loved ones. A really lovely gesture, and hopefully one that will bring warmth to the hearts of folks going through hard times this Christmas.
After two years of doing their charity work and countless generous deeds in relative anonymity, Frances decided it was important to ‘speak out now at the end of 2020 to help draw attention to the good work being done by so many people for charity during the pandemic.’ She made it clear here that she was talking about other people’s charity work, and not her own.
Well I’m glad she did decide to speak out, because as this ridiculous year of frustration, heartbreak, and sheer madness comes to an end, Frances and Patrick’s story of unrelenting generosity, kindness, and compassion has given me a welcome sliver of hope for humanity, and for a better, kinder 2021.
Let’s hope all the gazillionaires of the world have heard their story too.
About the Author
Adam Millett is a freelance writer for hire who specialises in sustainability and environmental issues. He believes the economy should be circular, businesses should make the world a better place, and that effective content is the best way to spread the word about sustainability. Visit his website at wordchameleon.com if you want to bring your vision of sustainability to life.
Smashing Stigmas, Making History, No Excuses
Chris Nikic says on his website that although he could use his obstacles as an excuse to limit him, he doesn’t do excuses, and his coaches won’t take them. Instead, he works hard.
It is this hard work, and his inspirational will to become a little bit better every day that has led Nikic, only 21 years old, to recently become the first person with Down syndrome to complete the Ironman Triathlon, one of the most demanding endurance events in human history.
By completing the Ironman event, Chris Nikic is helping to break through the stigmas and assumptions associated with the physical and intellectual capabilities of people with Down syndrome, and has proven that although there may be developmental delays involved with the condition, they need not be limitations!
To complete the Ironman Triathlon, you must somehow battle through a 3.8km swim, followed by a 180km bike ride, all nicely topped off with the simple task of a flipping 42km marathon! (I tried doing 3km on a treadmill once, and you know what? I wouldn’t recommend it.) To count as a success, you must complete this absolute mammoth of a trek in just 17 hours. Mr. Nikic managed it in 16 hours, 46 minutes and 9 seconds; a truly incredible thing for anybody to achieve.
But Chris Nikic is not just anybody. As well as being a high-performance athlete, talented keynote speaker, super-determined individual and inspiration to many, he is also a person with Down syndrome, a condition that results in varying degrees of physical and cognitive delays in anybody who has it.
By completing the Ironman event though, Chris is helping to break through the stigmas and assumptions associated with the physical and intellectual capabilities of people with Down syndrome, and has proven that although there may be developmental delays involved with the condition, they need not be limitations!
Overcoming obstacles, smashing stigmas, making history, and making no excuses along the way, Mr. Nikic has become an inspiration to many and I’m sure a hero to kids with Down syndrome around the world.
Before getting on to the details of his glorious Ironman triumph though, first, in the interest of breaking through stigmas and assumptions about Down syndrome, here’s a little information about what the condition actually is.
What is Down Syndrome?
Down syndrome is a genetic condition that occurs in people of all races and economic levels, and according to the World Health Organisation, ‘the estimated incidence of Down syndrome is between 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 1,100 live births worldwide.’
While people typically have 23 even pairs of chromosomes in the nucleus of each cell in their body, Down syndrome is a genetic condition in which a person has a full or partial extra copy of chromosome 21 throughout their genetic makeup. It is this additional genetic material that alters the course of development and causes the characteristics associated with Down syndrome.
Down syndrome takes its name from the English physician John Langdon Down, who was the first to publish an ‘accurate description of a person with Down syndrome’ in 1866. It is a genetic condition that occurs in people of all races and economic levels, and according to the World Health Organisation, ‘the estimated incidence of Down syndrome is between 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 1,100 live births worldwide.’
Some common physical traits associated with Down syndrome are low muscle tone and small stature, and in some cases people with Down syndrome may have an increased risk of heart defects, eye diseases, ear infections, hearing loss, and sleep apnea.
As well as these physical traits, individuals with Down syndrome also ‘possess varying degrees of cognitive delays, from very mild to severe,’ with most having cognitive delays that are mild to moderate. Here is a great resource if you want to learn in more detail about Down syndrome.
In Mr. Nikic’s case, his low muscle tone required him to use a walker frame until the age of 3 to successfully walk, but as he says on his website, and has clearly proven since, “a delay is just a delay, it is not permanent. It just means we have to work harder and that’s OK.”
And work harder is what Chris Nikic has done, day by day, to gradually become a better version of himself, and to achieve remarkable things.
Here’s a look at how he became an ‘Ironman,’ one day at a time.
Conquering the World, One Day at a Time
Clearly, the Ironman Triathlon is no joke. I can’t even begin to comprehend the level of physical fitness and mental fortitude required to do something as crazy as that.
To become the first person ever with Down syndrome to do it is even further beyond my comprehension; an absolutely magnificent example of overcoming obstacles to achieve the unthinkable. To say it’s inspirational is an understatement, but the way in which Chris Nikic approaches these gargantuan challenges is the most inspirational, and adoptable part of it.
Together with his father Nik, Chris has developed what he calls the ‘1% Better Challenge,’ which encourages taking small steps towards improvement on a day-to-day basis. The idea is that by doing just a little more each day, you can sort of eliminate the pain of improvement and stay motivated by focusing on steady, gradual progress.
As Chris states on his website, if you start by walking 100 steps and get 1% better each day for a year, by the end of the year you will be walking 3700 steps per day. If you start with 1000 steps, by the end of the year, you’ll be walking a marathon, all while only having to increase your effort by 1% each day.
Chris talks about this method as a simple way of building better habits, and positively influencing what you focus on. He suggests that if you wake up every day thinking ‘how can I be 1% better today,’ you are probably going to be better off in the long run. I mean imagine if everyone woke up thinking that every morning.
“If I can do so much with so little, imagine what you can do.”
– Chris Nikic
It is this mindset of gradual improvement that drove Chris from being ‘overweight and out of shape’ at 18 to first doing a junior triathlon, to doing a sprint triathlon in 148 minutes, to then doing it in 100 minutes a month later, to doing a ‘half Ironman’ in 8hrs 25mins, and to eventually becoming the first person with Down syndrome to complete a full Ironman earlier this month, all in the space of just over two years.
Chris puts his world record breaking success down to “the culmination of consistent effort over two years,” and urges everyone that “if I can do so much with so little, imagine what you can do.”
An inarguably powerful message, and a reminder that we can all achieve incredible things with the right mindset.
And Chris Nikic is certainly not done achieving incredible things just yet!
What’s Next for Chris Nikic?
After completing the Ironman event Mr. Nikic stated on Instagram that “I achieved my goal and now I want to help others like me.” He is currently raising money for the special olympics, Down syndrome, and RODS (Racing for orphans with Down syndrome), and you can donate to his fundraising campaign here.
Chris will also be competing in the Ironman World Championship next year as well as the 2022 special olympics, and is even planning to publish a book, titled ‘1% Better,’ in the near future.
According to Chris’s Dad Nik, what started off as a personal goal and dream for Chris has now ‘morphed into something much bigger’; a platform he can use to make a real difference for other people with Down syndrome.
After completing the Ironman event Mr. Nikic stated on Instagram that “I achieved my goal and now I want to help others like me.” He is currently raising money for the special olympics, Down syndrome, and RODS (Racing for orphans with Down syndrome), and you can donate to his fundraising campaign here.
He has already started using that platform by launching the 1% Better Challenge, which is not just the mindset for gradual improvement I mentioned earlier, but also a campaign for raising funds and awareness for people with Down syndrome.
Here’s how you can get involved.
The 1% Better Challenge
To help raise awareness about Down syndrome Mr. Nikic has proposed the ‘1% Better Challenge.’ Here are the steps for completing the challenge if you would like to get involved:
1. Commit to becoming 1% better yourself for 30 days.
2. Sponsor someone with special needs to do the same.
3. Set specific goals for what you both want to achieve in those 30 days.
4. Purchase a t-shirt here for you and your sponsor.
5. Post daily progress with your sponsor on social media, while wearing the t-shirts to raise awareness.
If the challenge isn’t for you, again, you can also donate to Chris’s fundraiser here, with all funds going towards the special olympics, Down syndrome, and RODS (Racing for orphans with Down syndrome.)
Clearly Chris Nikic is an incredibly inspirational human with a kind heart, and a drive to make himself and the world around him a better place.
All I can say is, I’m looking forward to seeing what he achieves tomorrow, when he’s Ironman, + 1%.
About the Author
Adam Millett is a freelance writer for hire who specialises in sustainability and environmental issues. He believes the economy should be circular, businesses should make the world a better place, and that effective content is the best way to spread the word about sustainability. Visit his website at wordchameleon.com if you want to bring your vision of sustainability to life.
How much do we know about our world?
We know the sky is blue don’t we? And the grass is green? Except sometimes the sky is very grey indeed and the grass isn’t even there!
Maybe we don’t know so much about our world after all? Maybe we’re just silly little nonsensical humans who think we know everything but really we’re just swimming about the place without a map or a compass or half a clueless clue what direction to take to get to the next coral reef? Maybe.
A Skyscraper in the Middle of the Ocean!
Speaking of the next coral reef: Turns out just the other day scientists in Australia happened to stumble across a previously undiscovered detached coral reef that’s over 500 metres high and taller than the flipping Empire State building!
This newly found reef sits roughly 130km off Cape York at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and was found during a 3D seabed mapping exercise conducted by scientists Dr. Robin Beaman of James Cook University and his Co-PI Mardi McNeil, along with their team of other groovy ocean science folk. This fantastical discovery work is all being done aboard a ship provided by The Schmidt Ocean Institute called the R/V Falkor.
If you’re wondering what a Falkor is, no no no! A Falkor is not a fal-con. Falkor is the majestically majestical creature from The NeverEnding Story, a movie from the 80s directed by Wolfgang Peterson that I used to absolutely love when I was a little nipper but haven’t seen in a long time because I completely forgot about it but will now probably watch this evening after this coral reef appearing out of nowhere story has reminded me of it. Unearthing (or unoceaning?) new skyscraper dwarfing coral reefs while simultaneously reminding me about The NeverEnding Story, thank you very kindly Australian ocean science folk!
Okay Falkor, bring us back to the reef now please!
Just the other day scientists in Australia happened to stumble across a previously undiscovered detached coral reef that’s over 500 metres high and taller than the flipping Empire State building!
This new coral reef those ocean science folks just found is about 1.5km wide at the base and about half a km tall, and apparently it is the first ‘large detached reef’ to be found in the area SINCE THE 19TH CENTURY! (Have to say I never knew coral reefs were so good at hide and seek, you’d think this reef would have gotten bored after a while and come to the kitchen for its dinner, but no, it stuck it out somehow, hiding in the shadows for all those years without so much as a squeak. I guess it’s all about mental fortitude. Maybe coral reefs are just more mentally strong than humans are? I suppose, that wouldn’t take much now would it? Puny puny humans.
New Forms of Life
From what they have found so far, the reef is home to plenty of reef fish, and is thought to have ‘an incredible abundance of sponges, sea fans, and soft corals,’ which suggests that the area is ‘rich in nutrients carried by strong currents and upwellings of deep waters.’ (Hmmm, rich in nutrients. So maybe that’s why the reef never came to the kitchen for its dinner?) (Crafty crafty reef!) (Well done reef, very well played) (The dinner was full of processed chemicals anyways.)
Turns out the groovy ocean science folks onboard the R/V Falkor are currently on a year-long exploration of oceans surrounding Australia and have already discovered what they believe is the longest sea creature ever recorded, a 45-metre long siphonophore, as well as dozens of ‘yet-to-be described’ species such as black coral, sponges, and scorpionfish.
As you would imagine, the discovery of this reef will probably lead to years of study, and who knows, at this rate, they may even end up finding a thriving ocean dinosaur colony down there somewhere, as well as the main dragon from Game of Thrones, the lost city of Atlantis, my Monday morning motivation, and possibly a few alien spaceships for good measure to go along with what they’ve already discovered.
Turns out the groovy ocean science folks onboard the R/V Falkor are currently on a year-long exploration of oceans surrounding Australia and have already discovered what they believe is the longest sea creature ever recorded, a 45-metre long siphonophore, as well as dozens of ‘yet-to-be described’ species such as black coral, sponges, and scorpionfish. So maybe finding the thriving colony of ocean dinosaurs isn’t so unrealistic after all? Certainly far more likely than finding my Monday morning motivation I would imagine. Or Tuesday morning for that matter. Or Wednesday. You get the out of focus picture; mornings themselves are the main culprit here! Leave the damn days alone! (This whole ‘coffee helps you focus’ talk is nothing but nonsense-flavoured malarky.)
Plenty Left to Discover
Our understanding of things is not always correct and seemingly dark and empty spaces are sometimes teeming with colour and life.
Anyways, it’s nearly the afternoon now so it’s time to focus on what’s important here. It’s incredible discoveries like this one that really serve as a reminder that there is so much we do not know, about ourselves and about the world around us. Nothing is guaranteed in this world. The sky isn’t always blue and the grass isn’t always green. Our understanding of things is not always correct and seemingly dark and empty spaces are sometimes teeming with colour and life. New forms of life that we’ve never even witnessed before.
Tom bridge, a principal investigator on the expedition that discovered this reef said ‘We know more about the surface of our moon than we do about what lies in the depths beyond our coastlines.’
I would imagine that statement also rings true in a figurative sense; the internal exploration of human potential has yet to even leave the harbour!
How much do we know about our world? Probably nothing much at all, yet.
But as this expedition has demonstrated, yet, can be a very important word indeed.
About the Author
Adam Millett is a freelance writer for hire who specialises in sustainability and environmental issues. He believes the economy should be circular, businesses should make the world a better place, and that effective content is the best way to spread the word about sustainability. Visit his website at wordchameleon.com if you want to bring your vision of sustainability to life.
A Wall of Hope 