The Promise

 The promise Story written by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Laura Carlin 

#ClimateAction #Rewilding #ClimateJustice

The Promise is an urban fairy tale that plays out on the mean streets of a mean city. Here, a young thief tries to snatch an old woman’s bag but she cannot have it without giving something in return: The Promise. It is the beginning of a journey that will change her life and a chance to change the world for good.

A girl who is hardened by the harsh urban environment that surrounds her is transformed into a guerrilla gardener by the unexpected booty resulting from a mugging. The burgeoning wildlife opens up people’s hearts and minds and the girl moves on to multiply the magic.

In spare poetic prose, Nicola Davies has fashioned a variation on the myth of the Green Man for a modern age. Laura Carlin has drawn absorbing grey and brown cityscapes which gradually become permeated with brightly coloured birds and flowers as the girl plants ‘among rubble, ruins and rusty railings, by train tracks, tramlines and traffic lights’.

The Book read aloud

Activities BritLit

The video BBC

What is climate Change

There is a difference between weather and climate. There are many different types of weather that  belong to different seasons. Like rain in winter and sunshine in summer. The word climate describes the weather overa long time. Our climate is changing, our planet is heating up.

The average temperature on Earth is getting warmer because there are more greenhouse gasses being released into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases are made from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) to heat up our homes, run cars and aeroplanes and to run factories. It is also released through animal burps! This means the more animal products (like cheese and milk) and meat we eat, the more animals there are on farms and the more methane (a greenhouse gas) is released into the atmosphere.

What are the Effects of Climate Change?

Climate change effects our planet in lots of different ways. The ice in the Artic and Antarctic is melting, which makes the sea levels rise 6mm each year. Although this doesn’t sound like much, this is enough to flood cities like London by 2100. Oceans are also getting warmer which is causing larger storms. Summers are becoming hotter and drier, which causes droughts and forest fires. If we carry on putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, Earth’s temperature could go up by 4 degrees or even more.

What Difference Can I Make?

We can all help in many different ways to stop the temperature of our planet rising further. Here are just some of the things we need to do:

• Stop burning coal, oil and gas to make electricity, and heat houses, and use solar and wind power instead.
• Reduce our use of cars and aeroplanes. Switch to electric cars, bikes and walking.
• Eat less meat so we need fewer animals that produce methane.
• Insulate houses so they don’t use so much energy to keep warm.
• Reduce the amount of things we own
• Repair things when they break down
• Re-use old things
• Recycle them when they are really not working anymore.
• Everything we own, phones, TV, furniture, clothes, toys takes energy to make, that puts more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.