6.30 pm Dinner - Speaker, Stephen Turner, District Environment Officer

Stephen told us about the work of Rotary in environmental issues, highlighting four main areas:

'Spring Clean' where a club undertakes to clean an area such as a town centre, park, beach etc.  His own club have done this for many years and he notes, with pleasure, that the amount of rubbish has diminished from 60 bags to 30 bags. 

'Tree Planting' with the support of the Woodlands Trust, many clubs have engaged in tree planting large areas to improve the local environment.

'Earth Hour' which next year takes place on 28th March from 8 pm. to 9 pm.  We are all encouraged to turn all electrical equipment off, including lights and televisions etc. to conserve energy but also to focus on our excessive use of the earth's diminishing resources.  Stephen has suggested a social function could be held 'by candlelight'!

'Rodney Huggins Environmental Award'.  Stephen pointed us to this annually presented award and cited examples from previous years.

With an overall theme of 'sustainability', we were given many new insights to Rotary's work in environmental issues and appropriate challenges were suggested for future action.