Charles Secrett – The Sense of Wonder
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THERE IS A VENN DIAGRAM OVERLAP HERE THAT WE ARE MISSING, AND THAT’S THE COMMON GOOD AGENDA THAT WHETHER YOU ARE RIGHT OF CENTRE, LEFT OF CENTRE, FREE, WE ALL NEED TO GET TOGETHER. COMPASSION IS AT THE HEART OF THAT FOR SURE.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/survival-of-the-kindest/id1525026504?i=1000503709353
This week Julian talks to Charles Secrett, former head of Friends of the Earth, and life long environmental campaigner and activist. Having spent so long campaigning on behalf of our planet Charles has a knowledge and understanding of the severity of our current situation, as well as a proper and realistic grip on the nature of campaigning and how we can effectively create change in our local and global environment.
Charles’s insight in to the state of campaigning today highlights so many areas that are open to and ready for change; from the lack of diversity in the sustainability movement which translates to a lack of diversity in Britains parks and nature reserves, to the pitfalls of campaigns which rely solely on rationality and facts, and don’t touch the emotional or spiritual side of nature and our planet.
Clearly there is an urgent need to address the climate crisis, and Charles makes it clear that this is a joint responsibility – ‘life is about connectivity, about cooperation, about looking after each other’, and that includes our planet, its biosphere, its animals and so on. In order to change the bleakness of our future as it looks at the moment we have to pull together, our facts, our stories, our connection to nature, our right and left wing politicians, to make real change: ‘All the elements have to be woven together into a narrative that is not just a story but that leads to real change for people’s lives in the here and now’
Charles has worked with every level of Britain’s hierarchical system and having been put through the wringer of politics and it’s over fondness for talking and distinct lack of action, Charles is still (mostly) hopeful. As he describes it himself –‘I go to bed a pessimist […] but I absolutely wake up as an optimist’. It is in the rest of our hands now to mobilise together no matter how small we feel, or how in effective – we can all wake up as optimists.
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