Climate Café® Dunnet is based on the north coast of Scotland, a few miles from John O’Groats.
Three of us decided it was a great idea to meet over a cup of tea and a piece of cake to talk about the climate crisis. We meet on 2nd Thursday of each month 7-9 pm in Britannia Hall in Dunnet. The Climate Café® is open to everyone. We also have a WhatsApp group where we share positive news on climate action from around the world.
At our first meeting we showed the Highlands and Islands Hub climate film. This covers an excellent variety of positive climate related projects across the region. As a result the group decided to find out more about recycling and cycling. We invited local experts on these topics to our next two meetings. People were inspired to change their behaviour – more recycling and more use of their bikes.
We invited the leaders of our local beach cleaning project (1.3K followers on Facebook). People collect rubbish from beaches individually and the amount is tallied. They use the rope collected to make beautiful doormats. We have also had talks on local renewable energy and how we can ensure that local people’s views are considered. We supported a local butterfly habitat project by planting kidney vetch. Two local farmers talked about changing their farming practice for the benefit of their animals, their land and biodiversity. We are hoping to visit their farm in the spring.
We made Green Hearts for our community forest (part of the Climate Coalition’s Show the Love). We collected 60+ hearts made of natural materials and made a trail through the forest with them. We involved a local school and older people. The youngest participant was 6 and the oldest 80. We also got people to write what they love about the forest as they arrived for their walks. We had lots of positive feedback about this and we are planning another project in the spring.
In early days Climate Café® Dunnet had around 10 and 12 people each time, most very local!
Everyone is welcome.