A recent writing competition to promote ways of making Marlow more Eco-Friendly had a number of interesting entries, which we are pleased to showcase below.
Well done to the students whose work is published here for engaging with the task and for having such good ideas, or for finding ideas that chimed with their beliefs.
How Can Marlow Reduce Their Impact on Climate Change?
by Grace Puddephatt
Home Lighting
Home Heating
Planting
Reduce the use of cars
More bins
Community competitions
Washing/Drying
Green Gym
by Arran Bligh
Design turbines for use in the gym that will produce energy for the school.
Plant a Tree
by Ava Cryer
Have you ever been to a town where you have to search for greenery, where the air feels thick to breathe, where your pictures look black and white as there are no flowers for miles?
I love Marlow and I personally can’t let that happen to our beautiful community.
So, I have a proposition. Plant a tree to save our town. Trees do so much good for our planet, for example, they take in carbon dioxide in exchange for oxygen. They are fun and entertaining for children and the trees are beautiful and give homes to lots of wildlife. Also, it takes twelve trees to provide enough oxygen for one human, yet every day 1 million trees are cut down.
If everyone in Marlow planted one tree, we would save our town for an affordable cost and have a fun learning experience for everyone. 100 people live in Marlow, just imagine if everyone clubbed together and we help each other we can really make a difference in our world.
Transport, Litter and Plastic
by Alice Farrow
To reduce the amount of energy used in Marlow there should be more buses and public transport. If you think about the number of people who drive to school from Marlow Bottom or Little Marlow, the places where it’s just a little to walk but no buses. There should be more buses that do routes around Marlow.
Also, we could have a day where everyone picks up one piece of litter. If you imagine how many people there are in Marlow and if everyone picked up one piece of litter that would be, say, 500 pieces of litter picked up in one day. Imagine if everyone had to pickup two pieces of litter, that is 1000 pieces of litter picked up in a day. Think how much could be resolved by only doing a little bit each? These litter picks should be advertised around Marlow and online.
We could talk to supermarkets about their plastic bag wastage. Instead of multiple-use plastic bag usage, supermarkets could encourage one reusable bag (maybe made out of cotton) that shoppers buy and use over and over again. A system could be put in place that when you use your reusable bag, when shopping, you could gain money off your weekly shop or be rewarded free items. If you think about, it no one will lose money as shops would earn money from people buying reusable bags.
Finally, my last suggestion is that eco-friendly items like biodegradable bin bags, reusable water bottles, and Tupperware should be cheaper to purchase than non-eco friendly options like plastic bottles and zip-lock bags. Therefore, people would be more inclined to buy them and save the planet. People always go for the cheaper option.
Thank you for reading my ideas about how to help Marlow be more Eco-friendly and I hope these ideas are considered.
Eat to Preserve
by Eve Kouyoumdjian and Isabella Murray
We think that the residents of Marlow and could aim to eat less meat/dairy products to help reduce the effects of climate change. According to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation, about 14% of all emissions come from meat and dairy production. This is because of land-use change, and processes used in farming,which make up much of the carbon footprint of most foods. Animal-based foods tend to score considerably higher in these two areas than plant-based foods. For example, grazing animals require a lot of land, often created through deforestation. Deforestation is bad because it causes soil erosion, flooding, increased greenhouse gases and climate change. Livestock also produces large quantities of methane, a particularly harmful greenhouse gas. Meanwhile, foods like tofu, beans, peas and nuts have a very low overall carbon footprint making them environmentally friendly choices. Simply reducing our intake of these two foods can make a big impact. One easy way to reduce consumption of high impact animal-based products is to reduce portion sizes. This idea is free and accessible for everyone.
Veganism and vegetarianism are growing every day and so are food substitutes. For example: instead of eating ice cream you could try fruit sorbet (many restaurants have this on their menu), you could try things like almond or oat milk instead of real milk, there are also many meats substitutes you can buy from any supermarket and are many more substitutes you can try. There are also many benefits to a vegan diet: a vegan diet is richer in certain nutrients, eating vegan can help you lose excess weight, a vegan diet appears to lower blood sugar levels and improve kidney function, it lowers the risk of diabetes complications and eating vegan can even reduce pain from arthritis (inflammation or swelling of one or more joints).