Planet A
Campaigning is seriously hard work, often with few thank yous at the end of it.
I salute everyone doing it full-time!
Of course, as the saying (roughly) goes "evil triumphs when good folks do nothing".
That is to say that, without campaigners and changemakers, we'd still have overt slavery and apartheid, and only men would be allowed to vote. We'd also have little chance of halting our current headlong dash towards biodiversity collapse and climate catastrophe.
...so every now and then, I summon the energy to throw myself into a campaign in an attempt to change something for the better.
To lighten the load and to work with people I trust when I do so, I co-founded a campaigning collective with my friend Lisa Rose, called Planet A.
Two campaigns
There are two of our most successful, public-facing campaigns...
#NoBeef
This is a campaign to reduce the consumption of beef and lamb in schools and universities.
The campaign is supported by catering departments at the University of Cambridge, Goldsmiths University and Coimbra University, as well as many schools.
It is backed by academics around the world, was covered by The Times, and has been endorsed by Peter Gabriel and Paul McCartney.
#ReforestEarth
In October 2019, we put 1000 sapling trees outside the UK parliament, with 650 labelled with the names of each UK members of parliament (MPs).
Over 400 MPs collected trees, and engaged with us in conversations about the need for urgent reforesting and re-wilding. Numerous MPs pledged on camera to accelerate British reforestation.
Two months later, the British government increased UK tree-planting plans from 11 million to a billion.
In the words of Ed Miliband, former leader of the Labour Party, “I think you’ve changed the conversation, and forced politics to sit up and take notice.”
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This story was covered by Reuters, EuroNews, Evening Standard and Metro.