Greenseniors

Green Networks...Guerrilla Gardening

Our next Green Network is an unusual combination of activism, self gratification, community spirit and green-fingered fun. Guerrillagardening.org started life in 2004 as the work of Richard Reynolds and a small group of friends, who were so fed up with the state of their south London tower block that they decided to green it up. They were not the first people to do this though; in fact the idea of Guerrilla Gardening (effectively, gardening without permission) goes back to 1973 in New York:

In 1973 a local resident named Liz Christy and a group of gardening activists known as the Green Guerrillas were planting window boxes, vacant lots with ‘seed bombs’ and tree pits in the area. They saw the large rubble-strewn lot as a potential garden and in December went to the City to find a way to gain official use of the land. Volunteers hauled the garbage and rubble out, spread donated topsoil, installed a fence and began planting.

(from http://www.lizchristygarden.org/)

However, not until more than 30 years later has the idea of people greening up public urban spaces of their own volition really taken hold. The official Guerrilla Gardening community consists of thousands of people who are signed up to an online web forum, but there is no doubt that there are many other people following their lead and, in some cases, taking the lead in making their neighborhood a nicer place to live. You have to look at the Troop Digs page to appreciate the vast range of ‘projects’ that have been carried out.

To us at Green Seniors, we think this is something that that seniors can really get stuck into. Yes, it's a bit 'naughty', and if you feel uncomfortable then you can always ask permission first, but sometimes toe-ing the line doesn’t change anything. How many times have you asked the local authorities for a pedestrian crossing, a garbage bin or a repair to a vandalized structure, to no avail?

We see two big benefits for seniors who want to do a bit of Guerrilla Gardening. First, is the act of getting out and doing something active, fulfilling and positive for the community. This carries with it an enormous sense of well-being, and also – like all gardening - is a great way of getting fit.

Second, improving the community and environment for everyone and everything. This has many positive side effects in terms of reduced vandalism, safer streets, and even bringing broken communities back together. There is a valuable concept known as 'broken window syndrome', which suggests that even small breakages or a low level of bad behaviour, if left to fester, can escalate to serious anti-social behaviour, and widespread damage to an area. A bit of gardening here, and mending there, could make all the difference.

And what better way to wake up in the morning to the sound of birdsong. Those birds could be enjoying the very trees and shrubs that you planted!

Green Hero...Anita Roddick (RIP)

   

It is with an acute sense of loss that Green Seniors heard of the death of Anita Roddick, on 10 September 2007, at the age of 64. We had, for some time, been planning to feature Anita as a Green Hero, but now are only able to pay tribute to her work posthumously.

A small feature can in no way do justice to a person of such monumental stature as Dame Anita Roddick: peace campaigner; environmental activist; pioneer of the Fair Trade movement; astonishingly successful anti-vivisectionist; business leader who showed other business leaders what ‘ethical’ actually meant.

There is an excellent profile of her in The Independent newspaper, as well as a reprint of an article she wrote four years earlier, when she turned 60. One paragraph is particularly pertinent to Green Seniors:

‘As we age, we want to be heard, whether it's in marriage, politics, friendship or in the workplace. We also become more radical. That's our pattern. As Dorothy Sayers said, “A woman in advancing age is unstoppable by any earthly force.” I hope to be no different.’

Sadly she only had four years from that time to carry on her work, in ever expanding areas; but it is clear that she meant what she said. Her sale of the Body Shop to L’Oreal in 2006 was highly controversial, but to Anita it was a way of simultaneously moving out of the business world (and further into activism), and planting an ethical ‘Trojan Horse’ in the centre of a cosmetics behemoth. She launched an activism web portal in 2004, and worked tirelessly on the campaigns dear to her heart up to her death, despite (or maybe because of) the knowledge since 2004 that her Hepatitis C might claim her life at any time.

The photo at the top of this article – of Anita taking action against nuclear weapons alongside Greenpeace campaigners – was taken in 2006, when she was 63. No doubt she would have liked to have continued in such a manner for far longer than she did.

Presenting Green Seniors

Today (7 September 2007) a PowerPoint presentation has been gently and, we hope, attractively rolling through its pages on a stand at the 2007 AARP Conference in Boston, USA. The presentation was designed and written by Joyce and Keith, of Green Seniors, to make some very important points about the state of the planet, the things that need to be done, and where green seniors fit into all of this.

If you have PowerPoint installed on your computer, or know someone who has, then you can download and run the full presentation by clicking on this link. The presentation is automated and timed, so you don't have to click on anything - and it will continue to run until you decide to stop it.

We would love it if our supporters could use this presentation to show relevant organizations, senior groups, or just interested individuals how important action is. By clicking here, you can even send a link to the presentation as an e-mail.

We cannot stress strongly enough how big a part seniors need to play in dramatically changing human behaviour, and repairing the terrible damage that has already been done to the Earth. We know you can do it.