This month our colleagues Winchester Library have been part of the Hampshire Libraries climate challenge, Earth Matters March. Read on to find out more about their special collections of books and also the small changes we all can make to combat the impending climate crisis.
The earth’s climate is changing, human activity is causing our planet to warm at an alarming rate. International bodies of scientists have warned that we have just over a decade to halve our emissions to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change on our food supply, national security, global health, extreme weather, and more.
There is no time to waste. Everyone can do something to address our climate challenge, Hampshire County Council is working with all its services to help reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, increase biodiversity and make the land we manage as resilient as possible to climate change issues like flooding.
Plans include using our land and built estate to sequester carbon; making changes across our vehicle fleet; making the food we serve our customers more sustainable; ensuring we consider climate impacts when purchasing products and services and promoting changes that we can all make at work and at home.
To help us all make small changes at work or at home Hampshire Libraries launched Earth Matters March on 1 March. This month-long campaign features 31 suggestions – published as Instagram stories – for small changes most of us can easily make.
We are supporting this campaign with three special collections of books:
- the Earth Matter’s collection of fiction and non-fiction books, eBooks and eAudiobooks aimed at adult readers
- the Earth Heroes collection on BorrowBox, our digital library provider, for older teenagers and YA readers
- and the Earth Heroes collection for younger readers
Our digital library is available 24/7 via the free BorrowBox app – you can join the library online if you’re not already a member – and get access to the app straightaway. All of the books from our three environmental collections can be reserved and sent to Winchester Library, in The Arc for collection – you can reserve online, but a small charge applies to cover our costs.
