The growing network of mums taking practical action on climate change
Guest post: Sophie Marple, Mothers Climate Action Network
Introducing Mothers CAN
As a mum, becoming aware of the breakdown of our climate and the extreme threat it poses to our children’s future, can feel very isolating. Four years ago, with the release of the 2018 IPCC report and the sudden increase in public awareness, largely as a result of the direct action taken by Extinction Rebellion and the youth strikers, the gravity of the climate crisis we are living through began to become very real for me. I felt overwhelmed, unable to know what to do for the best. I’m driven to protect my children but I’m also painfully conscious that the voices of mums often go unheard.
With little access to real power as an individual, and having never previously been involved in activism or campaigning, I felt the best I could do was focus on personal actions inside my own home. But I knew in my heart that faced with such an impending crisis, personal actions were never going to make enough of a difference to achieve real change. It became clear to me that to save ourselves from runaway climate change everything needed to change and to change everything, needs everyone.
I felt strongly that if mums came together in our local communities we could be a powerful voice for change; we just needed the support to get going. That is what drove me and a group of like-minded women last year to start the Mothers Climate Action Network (Mothers CAN).
Just under a year later, there are over 600 of us in the network, and we have groups popping up all over the UK.
What’s happening now?
Mums across the country, many of whom have never previously been involved in community or climate action are getting in touch, keen to do something. And with our support, they recruit a group from their network and together they attend a series of ‘meets’ guided by a Mothers CAN facilitator. We hold the space for the groups to share their feelings about the crisis, visualise what a fossil-free future might look like, and ultimately help move them to action.
In our local neighbourhoods we’re making walking and biking safer, supporting renewable energy projects, and working towards building a fossil fuel-free future. We engage with our local decision-makers, encouraging them to be bold when it comes to climate action. Through the Mothers CAN network we create the opportunity for mothers’ voices to be heard on a national platform.
How to get involved
To keep building the power of our network we need more mums recruiting groups.
Later this year the team at Mothers-CAN are launching a virtual leadership course, with sessions once a week over four weeks, to help mothers who are driven to do something about the climate crisis but don’t quite know where to start, get ready to recruit a group and get going. And once you recruit a group, we are there every step of the way to guide you and your group to take action.
If this sounds like something you are up for and you want to know more, join one of the monthly welcome calls (click here to sign up) or email us at hello@mothers-can.org.