Cambridge Zero, Cambridge University Botanic Garden and the Centre for Landscape Regeneration (CLR) created a series of educational activities for young children amongst the rich greenery of the Botanic Garden in August to help the next generation learn more about the Earth's changing climate and how it is already affecting their environment.
Under drizzling clouds, children stomped through muddy puddles as they toured around the Garden on a climate trail of the world's wildflowers, ferns, trees and shrubs, took part in story-telling, made works of art, received signed copies of a book on climate change for children and quizzed scientists about how the natural world around them is changing.
Tours taught young students about carbon-breathing plants which take carbon dioxide (one of the greenhouse gases causing climate change), from the atmosphere and deposit it into the soil beneath their roots. But also learned how the effects of climate change is influencing other plants, like the Eucalyptus tree, to increase the impact of greenhouse gases.
Tours began with a talk on the changing climate by Professor Shuckburgh, who turned a drab and cloudy day into an opportunity to discuss the increasingly extreme weather facing the UK and the rest of the world as a consequence of the rising temperatures that are an effect of climate change.
‘Meet the Scientist’, Thomas Marquand, shared some of his research on restoring the Cambridge Fens, while CLR researchers ran a bees and butterflies identification stall to showcase the vast biodiversity of our insect world.
Children in the Garden's plant-packed greenhouses enjoyed an interactive story-telling of the “Dear Earth” picture book, sharing the wonder of majestic whales, soaring birds, and the noise and excitement of the rainforest. The message of the story was clear: Earth is worth saving.
Professor Shuckburgh signed and gave away more than 100 copies of her new children’s book “A Ladybird Book: Climate Change”, co-authored with King Charles III and Natural England Chair Dr Tony Juniper.
“The climate change happening now is happening very quickly, and it is damaging for many of the living things on Earth”, Professor Shuckburgh and co-authors write in the book. “For hundreds of years, we have used more and more from the natural world, but there is still only one Earth…Only when we are good to the Earth, by protecting and preserving it, can the Earth be good to us.”
