Environment quality activism UK
The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of UK community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' Environment quality activism and advocacy. Learn about how communities positively impact through innovations, different projects and collaborations. The majority of our information about this is collated via our place pages ...Near you.
Community groups may be concerned about litter, pollution, traffic pollution, air quality, noise or light pollution, river quality, state of beaches, etc. Communities concerns and the action they take may be for the health and wellbeing of all, environmental justice for both people and nature.
Dramatic fall in London’s levels of deadly pollutants after Ulez expansion, theguardian.com (Mar 07, 2025) — People in capital breathing much cleaner air, with significant improvements in capital’s most deprived areas- Norwich Western Link road plans withdrawn due to concerns on bats, BBC News (Jan 21, 2025)
- Storm Bert offers stark reminder of UK’s underfunded flood defences, theguardian.com (Nov 26, 2024)
"I don't drive to birdwatch any more. I walk from my house. I'm under no pressure to see anything exciting. I've stopped commodifying it. I just think of being out where I should be. Whenever I do that I'm really thankful for it. Nature is not there to make me feel better. It's something we can use to help us but ultimately we have to be there for it as well. And we've got to make wholesale changes to how we live." Joe Harkness, theguardian.com
Events
February, 2024 — Show the love, every February, growing public support for climate action through local events, heartfelt conversations and green heart craftivism in every corner of the country, theclimatecoalition.org- Mar 11 - 17, 2024 (Mon - Sun) — The Big Plastic Count, helping citizens and communities be part of the push on government, brands and supermarkets to take bold action to tackle the plastic crisis, thebigplasticcount.com
- Jun 20, 2024 (Thu) — Clean Air Day, actionforcleanair.org.uk
- Mar 21 - Apr 6, 2025 (Fri - Sun) — Great British Spring Clean, Keep Britain Tidy call to help improve local environments, keepbritaintidy.org
Networks
- Adfree Cities, network of groups across the UK who are concerned about the impacts of corporate advertising on our health, wellbeing, environment, climate, communities and the local economy
- Network for Clean Air
- Pesticide Action Network UK
- Zilch.org.uk, national network of individuals in the UK working to eliminate littering.
Community action projects
- Pesticide-Free Towns, see Pesticide-Free Towns – success stories, from pan-uk.org. Read how villages, towns and cities are going pesticide free and how you can make positive change where you live.
Maps
- England Noise and Air Quality Viewer, extrium.co.uk added 16:56, 13 July 2020 (UTC)
- How clean is the air where you are? foe.co.uk
- NightBlight, CPRE
- UK Ambient Air Quality Interactive Map, Defra UK, government site
- What's in Your Backyard? Local and national environmental data from the Environment Agency
Citizens data initiative
- Do you live in a pollution hotspot? Interactive map showing pollution hotspots, across England: (from) friendsoftheearth.uk, added 14:49, 3 September 2024 (UTC)
- "1.8 million kilograms of the UK's plastic waste is exported to other countries every single day." The video gives a visualisation of the amount for a single day. One of the comments invites us to imagine the amount for a whole year.
- Ranking UK supermarkets on pesticides, 2021, pan-uk.org, added 14:56, 4 February 2022 (UTC)
- UK AIR, air quality information resource, Defra
Apps for sustainability
Other resources
- Noisenuisance.org, a source of advice and help for those suffering from noise pollution added 17:00, 13 July 2020 (UTC)
Environmental inequality in the United Kingdom
UK environmental inequalities refers to the way in which the quality of the environment differs between different communities in the UK.
Examples of environmental inequalities in the UK include: Access to parks, green spaces and the natural environment; Exposure to flood risk; Air pollution; Exposure to harmful chemicals; Transport-related problems and Proximity to waste and landfill sites.
Responses to UK environmental inequalities have included NGO's, academia and government.
Campaigns
- Badvertising, campaign to stop adverts fuelling the climate emergency, including ads for cars, airline flights and fossil fuels, added 16:41, 2 October 2020 (UTC)
- Pesticide-free towns and cities, pan-uk.org
- UK Noise Association
See also: Climate action UK, Reduce, reuse, repair and recycle UK, Urban sustainability UK
local information can be found, or shared, via our many UK location pages
External links
Information from gov.uk
- Committee on Radioactive Waste Management
- Environment
- Environment Agency, public body responsible for protecting and improving the environment in England and Wales.
- Floods destroy. Be prepared.
- Local environmental quality