Make It Relatable

We can further reinforce the relevance of urban nature by referring to real world case studies.

Avoid hypotheticals like as-yet-unrealised projects. This is a chance to showcase what’s proven to be possible. If it’s happened once, it can be replicated.

Incorporate first-hand knowledge from people who have taken on the challenge with the intention to initiate a “if they can do it, so can I” response.

Represent what went wrong and allow them to talk freely about what they learnt from the experience. The more we do this, the closer we get to disarming the fear of failure, which encourages further experimentation. It also helps others not to replicate the same mistakes.

Focus on Similarities, Not Differences

There’s no doubt that we’ll achieve more by working together. That’s the founding principle of the What’s That Green? community. To optimise that potential, we need to dismantle division.

When Hanah Lahe from the left-leaning Estonian Reform Party set up an impromptu pocket park in two car parking bays outside Estonia’s parliament building, she did not predict that climate sceptics and conservative politicians would end up using it to rest in or host press interviews.

This serves as a reminder that we all carry an inherent connection to nature.

Hanah stopped short of calling out the hypocrisy of the right-of-centre commentators. In much the same way, we must know when to show restraint: an apolitical and pro-nature stance can make use of that common ground we all share and turn the opposition into allies.

Choose Your Words Carefully

Fortunately, because we feel that natural connection to nature, it can be easy to convince people of the benefits it offers.

Having said that, we have a habit of echoing the same messages over and over, which gets stale. People switch off to the white noise. Take greenery as an example, which we always say:

• is pretty
• cools us down
• supports pollination and therefore food security
• mitigates climate change
• bears the brunt of extreme weather
• improves our health and wellbeing, so reducing healthcare costs
• creates new jobs.

All valid points, of course, but do we still hear it? Also, this leaves us with the impression that the only purpose of nature is to serve human interests. That’s a toxic subliminal message in itself.

It’s time to change the record.

We need look no further than the Grey to Green initiative in Sheffield, UK. It uses refreshing, nature-centric language to present biodiversity on a par with its human neighbours.

“Grey to Green keeps in mind all the living things that call the city home,” the website says. “As well as forming new footpaths and cycleways, it creates safe green routes for wildlife” and “enables new ways for birds, bats and insects to move about within the city centre.”

This challenges another common narrative too. We’re all familiar with the label “pests” that animals such as rats are landed with. That implies that certain species don’t belong in the city; that existence is only permitted on our terms. It’s important to remember that we have a place within an ecosystem and that even “dirty” creatures provide advantages, like how pigeons clean up food discarded in the street.

Our established attitude also fails to recognise the colonial nature of urban sprawl. As cities expand and consume more and more green space, wildlife will either adapt or perish. It’s a marvel of nature’s resilience when species learn how to thrive beside us. The least we can do is disengage the corrosive language that “others” less-desirable species. Like it or not, we’re all in this together.