Reni’s primary focus is on feminism and exposing structural racism. As a freelance journalist she has written for a number of publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Voice, Buzzfeed, Vice. ID, & Dazed and Confused. In 2017 she completed her debut book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race. In 2020 her book rose 155 places in the official Bookseller chart. This happened in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. This meant that she became the first back British woman to top the non-fiction book-selling charts at number 1.She stated that she was dismayed by the tragic circumstances in which this achievement came about. On 16 June 2020 she became the first British black woman to be No1 overall in the British book charts. In 2020 and 2021 editions of the Powerlist Reni was listed in the top 100 of the most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent. See list of Awards and Recognitions

Reggie (Reginald) Yates has had a career in television and radio lasting 3 decades. (See 2 pages of notes) He made his first television appearance in Desmond aged just 8. He has worked for the BBC in radio and television presenting various shows for BBC Radio 1 as well as hosting BBC1 singing show* The Voice UK*, hosting the first 2 series with Holly Willoughby. He has been a lead voice actor for CBeebies animated cartoon series Rastamouse. In 2021 he released his first feature film Pirates.

Temi’s heart was broken when her good friend Marvin was murdered. The need for justice erupted inside her. She developed her strongest weapon - knowledge. She studied law, the streets, the system, pollticians, and the culture of youth. In 2012 she founded The 4Front Project. Between 2014 -2018 she won 6 awards for her efforts. Sources Wikipedia Superheroes* by Sophia Thakur (pages 92-3)

William is a British-Ghanaian entrepreneur. In 2016 selected by Richard Branson to be a Virgin StartUp ambassador. His watch company has been sold in over 30 countries and he has distributed over 2,000 items of school uniform to children across Ghana, South Africa and Uganda. In 2017 nominated for 2 awards GUBA Business StartUp of the year Black British Entertainment Award - Best Fashion Designer Sources Wikipedia *Superheroes *by Sophia Thakur

Jumpoke and Kym joined forces and created a platform to increase the visibility and highlight the narratives of the ‘invisible population within an invisible population’ -Tripple Cripples For breakfast they eat skin colour on a plate of racism, for lunch they eat gender and for dinner they eat a plate of disability. They don’t swallow and wallow in the face of difficulty, they smile and wave. *Tripple Cripples was created by two disabled black women, for women, femmes and Non-Binary POC living with disablities, each and every day, where stories remain hidden from view. Jumpoke, contracted polio before her first birthday. She is a travel addict and her travel blog Jayonlife highlights both the accessible and inaccessible of her chosen destinations. She is a writer, speaker, lecturer and consultant. Kym has Multtiple Sclerosis. She is dedicated to illuminating her ’ lived experience’ with this long tern condition. She is a writer, speaker and a lecturer at Oxford University. Sources used Wikipedia Superheroes by Sophia Thakur

Dr Mark Richards research centred around the spectroscopic study of nitric acid vapour for atmospheric remote sensing retrieval. He has since co-founded Duvas Technologies which specialises in wireless air sensing networks for real-time pollution mapping. Sources Wikipedia Superheroes by Sophia Thakur

Liam fist came to public attention as a contestant on The Great British Bake-off in 2017. He came fifth. Since then he has written 2 books Cheeky Treats: 70 Brilliant Bakes and Cakes and Second Helpings. He also writes a column for* The Guardian* He was a judge on the Platinum Pudding Competition in 2022 to discover a new pudding recipe dedicated to Queen Elizabeth ll on her 70th anniversary accession to the throne. Sources Wikipedia Superheroes by Sophia Thakur

Vertical farming is where crops are grown on top of each other than in traditional horizontal rows. This is happening both on the land ( indoors) and in the sea. Using less space the yield is higher. Read description and look at the two pictures. Greenwave have developed a sustainable agriculture technique called vertical underwater farming or regenerative ocean farming.The company is growing a range of seaweed types like kelp and shellfish, plus mussels and scallops on a rope scaffolding system under the sea. Kelp is one of the fastest growing organisms on the planet and can be repeatedly harvested for at least seven years. Source World Economic Forum

Climate change has resulted in AQUACULTURE being seriously considered. Man is seeking to grow crops under water especially SEAWEED This means the plants are grown without soil, in a nutrient-rich solution to deliver water and minerals to their roots, in a controlled environment. No pesticides are needed. The start up that believes seaweed can change the world. Source World Economic Forum

BladeBUG will do the maintenance on the wind turbines at sea. The vision of Chris Cieslak, BladeBUGs founder, is to keep all humans on shore. An autonomous vessel would leave port carrying the BladeBUG. A drone would be sent to make an initial inspection from the air. On its return to the boat it would collect a BladeBUG robot and ferry it to the work area. Source 39 ways to save the Planet

We have been accustomed to seeing roofs covered in solar panels( using the rays of the sun) to heat people’s homes. We have seen them built on large areas of land ( car park size). These are small scale compared with Floating Solar- solar panels on a body of water as large as a reservoir or lake. Across the world, especially in China, these have been developed. See the long lists of advantages:- 1.no land occupancy 2. water conservation and quality 3. increased panel efficiency 4. tracking 5. environmental control 6. using areas already exploited by human activity 7. using power plants Disadvantages anchorage maintenance new technology required significant increased corrosion resistance waves (open sea) (Read detail about each) This is one of the major ways forward to counter Climate Change Sources Wikipedia 39 Ways to Save the Planet by Tom Heap

Protecting the world’s forests is crucial for the climate. Forests absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide and can be a source of greenhouse gas emissions when destroyed or damaged. Logging in deforestation refers to the practice of cutting down trees for commercial purposes mainly the timber industry. The impact of deforestation, if not controlled, can be devastating. On average for every tonne of wood extracted 6 tonnes (1:6) are damaged or destroyed. It can rise to 1:20. There are a number of ways of stopping it being so devastating. a logger could make a more accurate assessment of tree’s quality -a’plunge cut’. A chainsaw is driven into the base of the trunk to reveal if it is hollow without killing it. n be dropped where it will do least damage to its neighbour. instead of a wide skidway leaving a trail of destruction it can be narrow and sensitive to other trees OR a ‘logfisher’ -an adapted crane with long cables could ‘fish’ the timber out with less skidding logging roads could be reduced to 15 metres instead of 30 metres Combine all these habits and more trees will be left standing to hold more carbon and potentially grow on to be of valuable to the logger (Chapter 11 - Good Logging- 39 Ways to save the Planet by Tom Heap)

The two sisters were inspired by a school lesson about people who changed the world- Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. They had already experienced swimming in a bay in Bali and seeing plastic bottles, bags and bits of plastic floating on the water. They went home and did some research. Their research revealed that many countries had banned plastic bags. Why not Bali? They would try to solve the plastic pollution problem on the island by persuading people to stop littering… With 6 friends they started a campaign to ban paper bags… They named it** Bye Bye Plastic Bags** The first thing they did was to set up an online petition asking the governor of the island to support the ban. On day one they had 6, 000 signatures. Over the next few months this rose to 77,000. They asked the airport manager to help and they gained another 10,000. By this time their village of Deso Perenon had reduced plastic bag usage by 60%. The governor had still not responded. They learned, after a visit to the National Gandhi Museum, he had called a strike to force change. They also decided to so something similar-publicly fast from sunrise to sunset - he finally responded. After meeting them he signed an agreement to work towards a plastic-bag free Bali. They now involved businesses -shops, hotels and restaurants. In June 2015 the government announced that by 2018 plastic bags would be band… In 2015 the sisters w ere invited yo give a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk in London. By January 2018 Bali failed to reach target so the government declared a Garbage Emergency -officials 700 cleaners, with 35 trucks, to clear 100 tonnes of debris each day. In December the government announced single-use plastics would be banned from the island from July 2019. The sisters won many awards. Today Bye Bye Plastic Bags is a global youth movement in 45 countries. Sources Wikipedia Earth Heroes by Lily Dyu and Amy Blackwell

Felix is a German environmentalist and founder of the international tree planting and environmental advocacy organization Plant-for-the -Planet. Aged just 9 he was inspired by Wangari Maathai, from Kenya, who inspired a group of women to plant 30 million trees . Aged 9 he gave his first presentation to his class. His classmates clapped and cheered when he planted his first tree. News of the project spread and in April 2007 with help from his family he launched his children’s tree planting campaign. Aged 10 spoke in the European Parliament. In October 2008, with his sister Franziska and Gregory they held a special week-end. 100 children attended to train to be Climate Justice Ambassadors. After just 3 years the initiative resulted in 1,000,000 trees being planted… Met Wangari at UN meeting in New York. They combined efforts. By February 2011 over 12 billion trees planted. 2012 launched Die Gute Schokolade - Change Chocolate bar. The chocolate is Fair Trade and carbon neutral. For every 5 bars bought a tree is planted in Mexico (every 15 seconds a tree is planted). Aged 13 attended the UN General Assembly. Today Felix leads an organisation with 130 employees. Their target is 3,000,000,000, 000 trees ( 3 trillion) by 2030. His/their target is to help slow down climate change. Sources Wikipedia Earth Heroes by Lily Dyu and Amy Blackwell

Observe and interact Catch and store energy Obtain a yield Apply self regulation and accept feedback Use and value renewable resources and services Produce no waste Design from patterns to details Integrate rather than separate Use small and slow solutions Use and value diversity Use edges and value the marginal Creatively use and respond to change Perrine and Charles Herve-Gruyer in 2003 bought a small farm in a village called Hellouin, in France. They were determined to start with goals of self-sufficiency and wanting to grow healthy organic food without the use of chemicals or machinery. Few people had heard of organic farming. This they tried for 5 years but the yield did not make enough money to support the family. An email in 2008 ,about Permaculture, from a friend, changed everything. In the wild twice as much biomass , or plant material, grows naturally compared to farmland without the use of machinery or fossil fuels. It involves observing and learning from nature -how it makes new soil, protects and saves its water resources and how it adapts to climate. Perrine went on a Permaculture course in the UK that winter. They introduced vegetable beds which they did not dig but covered in mulch -plant cuttings and dead leaves. This protected the soil from drying out and made new soil as it rotted down. The result was more worms , fewer slugs and the vegetables grew better. They planted different crops close together, fitting them four times closer then before. They planted an edible forest with mushrooms, berries, fruit bushes and nut trees. They dug ponds, with island gardens in the middle, so the water reached the plants through the ground- no more watering the crops with hoses or watering cans. In their polytunnels they kept hens which eat the unwanted scraps slugs and snails, produced eggs and fertilized in the form of droppings. The French National Institute of Agricultural Research began a scientific research. After 10 years their 6,500 square farm had been transformed into an enormous garden with crops (800 varieties of vegetables, fruit and herbs) , wild flowers, singing birds, ducks, frogs and insects. The Herve-Gruyer family wanted to create something beautiful and the Earth gave back back to them in abundance. The farm, using the Permaculture ideals, produces 10 times more than a normal farm of a similar size. Sources Wikipedia Earth Heroes Lily Dyu and Amy Blackwell

Yin, aged 20, living on the edge of the** Mu Us Desert*, in northern China, decided, following being caught in a sandstorm, to try to reclaim the lost land taken by the desert. It was 1986. She had moved there the previous year to live with her husband, Bai Wanxiang. It was an arranged marriage. Her father’s best friend was dying and he agreed for her to marry his son. , She left behind her village Jinber Tang, which had green fields and wild flowers, for a dwelling in the desert, dug out of a slope, half buried in sand. Each day they had to shovel the sand from their front door to get outside. Climate change was making things worse. She started to plant trees when he left for work to overcome her loneliness. She was delighted they survived the winter. Bai sold his goat for 600 saplings but only 10 survived. They knew nothing about growing trees. They bought more trees and learned that Mongolian pine grew better in the desert. She learned to plant shrubs which held water before planting trees. She planted willows and lost them! Bai learned that the government had given the village 500, 000 saplings. The villagers were not interested. They had all of them. It was a round trip lasting 6 hours and took 20 days to collect all of them. It took months to plant them. Half of them survived thanks to the rain and grew into strong trees… They named them Yin’s Forest. As the forest grew neighbours, who originally laughed, started to plant saplings to control the sand… TV reporters came to see the forest, followed by government officials. Forest stratification has grown from 5.05 % in 1977 to 12.4 in 2012. Many attribute this feat to Yin. Nearly 40 years on Yin’s Forest is nolonger a desert but a flourishing village full of colour, fruit and other different variations of wildlife. Yin is now both a mother and grandmother but still continues to plant saplings . The trees she has planted feel like her children. She has been nominated by the Chinese Government for a Noble Prize. In 2020 her afforestation efforts were recognized by the Chinese Communist Party. Sources Wikipedia **Earth Heroes ** by Lily Dyu and Amy Blackwell

Isobel, from Portugal, saw an advert for a competition that would benefit her country This got her thinking about the amount of food which is wasted becomes it does not come up to standard - it looks ugly. (30 % of all food crops grown in Portugal are trashed.) It might look ugly but it could taste the same. or even better! She came second in the competition and won 15,000 euros. She set up** Fruta Feia She asked farmers to sell her their imperfect fruit or vegetables. They were suspicious to begin with but eventually agreed. !0 agreed to sell their unwanted produce to Fruta Feia. Fruta Feia started on November 18th 2013. Today it has 16 delivery points, around 350 farmers and 9,000 customers. It prevents 24 tons of fruit and vegetables ending up in the trash EVERY DAY. Sources Wikipedia Earth Heroes by Lily dyu and Amy Blackwell

Doug’s love for wolves began when he was a child. He read books about them and puzzled why humans could wipe out an entire animal species. He had to wait until he was 18 to take a volunteer position to help raise wolf pups in Indiana. He went to university to study biology and spent his summers working with wolves. He finished his studies in 1994 and joined the Yellowstone Wolf Project, becoming project leader in 1997.killed In 1995, almost 60 years after the last native wolves were killed, 14 wolves from Canada were released into the park’ Doug until he retired in 2024, watched the positive influence the reintroduction of wolves had on the ecosystem of the park. The number of elk fell in the park - which they had expected. The wolves changed the eat habits of the elks- they now now grazed and browsed instead of staying in one place. With less elks the land had a chance to recover. Trees which had been stunted in their growth now grew into dense forests. The berries and the insects from the trees brought back the birds Beavers flourished, their dams created deep pools and caused the rivers to slow down and meander The new trees stabilised the riverbanks The wolves had changed the landscape itself. Sources Wikipedia Earth Heroes by Lily Dyu and Amy Blackwell

Isatou initiated a recycling project called One Plastic Bag in Gambia. She noticed that the main streets of N’jau in Gambia were plagued with high piles of trash consisting of all forms from discarded plastics , tins, tyres, house waste and especially plastic bags were surrounded with puddles of water and malaria infected mosquitoes. Isatou brought to life the idea of recycling plastic bags to make purses that could be sold for money. Plastic bags were collected, dried out and then torn into small yam like threads called ‘plam’. These threads would be weaved together to make small hand held bags, It took 10 plastic bags to make a bag. Initially they were ridiculed but it worked. The money generated meant women living in poverty were now able to take care of their families. N’jau Recycling and Income Generation Group (NRIGG) was born. Today they recycle other waste to make jewelry, beads, armchairs, stools, even compost! Today Isatou works with more than 11,000 people and NRIGG is based in 4 separate communities across The Gambia She has travelled the world to share her story. Her village is now clean and tidy. Sources Wikipedia Earth Heroes by Lily Dyu and Amy Blackwell

Chewang from Ladakh in India, who had a diploma in civil engineering (1960), noticed a small stream in his yard had frozen solid under the shade of a group of popular trees, though it flowed freely elsewhere in his yard. He realized that the flowing water was moving too fast to freeze while the sluggish water beneath the trees was slow enough to freeze. Seeking money for his idea villagers and officials thought he was pagal or crazy. Based on this he created an artificial glacier by diverting a river into a valley, slowing down the stream by constructing checks. The next spring the villagers were amazed to find it worked. The artificial glaciers increase the ground water recharge, rejuvenating the spring and providing water for irrigation By 2012 he had built 12 artificial glaciers (there are now15) The largest one is in Phuktsey village - 1000ft long, 150ft wide and 4 ft in depth. Source Earth Heroes by Lily Dyu and Amy Blackwell