New Milton Lions' Vintage Car Show provided opportunity to engage with a totally different audience. They had concerns. Top of poops was sewage discharge into the Solent which has affected the beaches of Milford-on-Sea and Hordle Cliff, and Avon Beach in the past fortnight. We heard first hand about manhole covers being lifted by sewage in drives, about the destruction of wildlife in Danes Stream and about gulls dropping dead fish into gardens. No wonder our petition was popular; so popular was it that we ran out of petition sheets.
Our display of food waste and solutions caused surprising interest. We collect food waste on our allotment from local householders and with the help of cardboard and woodchip, we turn it into compost. Our latest method is Bokashi composting. This takes both green waste, and cooked, food waste, including meat, fish and dairy. Bokashi caused considerable interest and we ran out of explanatory leaflets.
Climate change and biodiversity are top concerns for Friends of the Earth. We are calling to 'Restore Nature Now' and our stall went some way to address this. For instance, people enjoyed our display of climate resilient plants for pollinators. Our 5m high Echium pinanana is definitely one of the best. In May it was feeding 20 Bumblebees at any one time, and now at the start of September, there are still two or three on it. A 'Match the Seedhead to the Flower' quiz caused much interest.
Exxon's pipeline proposals were on display further reflecting our concerns about biodiversity and climate change. Exxon asked us not to collect people's responses to the proposals without their representative being present. However, details of the proposals are in our earlier post, and even if you are unable to get to one of the consultation meetings, this previous post allows you to view the documents and reply to the consultation.
This was a great FOE stall at the New Milton event