Let’s all help make London the first ever National Park City
Back in September we attended the big launch event at the Royal Festival Hall for the campaign to turn London into a National Park City. We are big fans of Daniel Raven-Ellison and love the idea to make London the world’s first National Park City, so were super excited to hear more about what other people inside and outside of this industry think.
Over the course of the night, we learnt some incredible facts and figures from the speakers:
80% of the populace in the UK live in a town or city - Cities are great!
There are 8.3 million trees in London, almost as many as there are actual Londoners (currently 8.6 million)
The greenspace's and in particular parks in London are the lungs of the city and have the cleanest air around and 10% of London is actually urban habitat.
There are 13,000 different species living and 1 in 7 wildlife species in the UK are critically endangered. We looked this up afterwards and some of the most endangered species include the Kingfisher, Water Vole, Curlew, Hedgehog and the Turtle Dove.
1 in 7 kids in the UK haven’t visited greenspace (1 in 5 in London haven’t either) - EEK!
John Muir, the original creator of National Parks said “Everybody needs beauty as much as they need bread”.
And finally, “Imagination is our 6th sense”.
And finally, our economy is dependant on a healthy environment and healthy people. We have to do more to connect people to nature and create a place where we want to bring up our children and help communities to conserve nature, their environment and their own wellbeing.
You can find more about the campaign, pledge support and see more of these compelling stats on the National Park City website or follow them on Twitter.
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