Olive tree spotting

Being based in a concrete jungle (like London) it is quite easy not to pay attention to nature around us.

But as Robin Wall Kimmerer points out in her book Braiding Sweetgrass:

“Names are the way we humans build relationships, not only with each other but with the living world.”

If you do not know the names of the living beings around you—you have virtually no relationship with them and they get filtered out of your perception.

And if you have no relationship with something, why would you ever care for it

[...] Exactly.

So, one of the most important climate actions might be simply re-establishing our connection with nature. Then, treating the Earth with the care it so badly deserves will naturally follow.

So, let’s learn the names of plants around us, folks!

We thought olive trees could be a good first step because they are so strikingly different from flora in the UK. Once you see one, you’ll see them all the time and eventually “stop and smell the roses” will turn into “stop and reach for the olive branch”.