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‘We need to invest in the future of our planet’

APRIL 22 is Earth Day and with the Poole Harbour oil spill the irony is not lost on me that the first Earth Day in 1970 was inspired by an oil spill that took place in California.

This year’s theme is Invest In Our Planet. When you invest, you put in your own stake, you accept that you have something to lose if things do not work out.
No one invests to make themselves poorer, and to invest you need to feel excited about the potential.

I remember hearing about the opportunity to buy shares in Eurotunnel and EuroDisney back in the 90s. Not only did they seem good financial investments, but they conjured up an optimistic, exciting vision of the future.

To effect behaviour change we need to shift from dystopian visions of the future and towards those with clean air, thriving nature, plentiful food and healthy, fulfilled lives.
Which takes me back to Disneyland – a hedonistic vision of nostalgia and futurism rolled into one… ‘the happiest place on Earth.’

You enter a world with trams running down the street and a monorail in the air. The smell of delicious food wafts through sparkling clean air; flamingos relax on islands ablaze with flowers; families enjoy a slower pace of life without cars cluttering the streets.

Of course, Disneyland is about suspending belief but capturing some of that idealistic lifestyle might encourage people to invest and if people are personally invested in this vision of the future, business will follow suit.

It’s not a new idea.More than 150 years ago wealthy industrialists like Lever and Cadbury recognised that happy, healthy employees living close to their work and surrounded by green space would be more productive.

In the 1920s Welwyn Garden City was created as the ‘perfect town with the benefits of city and countryside life’.

We now know that nature is not best served by ‘perfect’ but a 21st century garden village can provide the opportunity to live in harmony with nature, where everything needed for daily life is on hand. This is why the row over 15-minute neighbourhoods is so frustrating.

Most people want to be within 15 minutes of what they need but can’t because their child cannot attend a local school or nursery, because they cannot cross a busy road to reach the park or shops. Adapting existing towns and villages will take time and effort and need to include everyone.

Of course, those with disabilities will still need cars, those with tools or multiple appointments cannot be expected to get on the bus but each person who can make a different choice in travel or shopping creates more space (and less congestion) for those who need to use the roads.

Which comes back to investing. If we want this future, we need to invest in it with our actions – supporting businesses that do the right thing, turning away from companies who put profit over planet.

The time is now, the need is urgent and although it might seem irrelevant, every action we take to invest in a clean, green future helps others to move towards that too.

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