Monday 12 July 2021

Somerset House - Global Goals

 Last month I visited the Forest for Change at Somerset House in London. It was created by artist Es Devlin to raise awareness of the U.N.'s 17 Global Goals. At the heart of the forest of 400 trees are the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development. 

Every tree in the forest will be replanted in London as part of the Queen's Green Canopy, a unique tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee in 2022.  Everyone in the UK will be encouraged to 'Plant a tree for the Jubilee'. It will have schools, scouts, community, sports groups etc as well as individuals planting trees.  Its aim is to create a living legacy which will contribute to cleaner air and make our lives greener.


As well as the inviting of planting new trees, The Queen's Green Canopy will dedicate a network of 70 Ancient Woodlands across the United Kingdom and identify 70 Ancient Trees to celebrate Her Majesty's 70 years of service. Obviously it will be something else to add to my bucket list to go and find these 70 Ancient woodlands and trees!
As you walked through the Forest for Change you could hear the sound of birdsong, created by Brian Eno.


You emerge from the Forest into a clearing with 17 mirrored pillars representing the Global Goals. In 2015, world leaders agreed to 17 Global goals to create a better world by 2030. The exhibition is a reminder for all of us, governments, businesses, civil society and the general public to work together to build a better future for everyone. Below are a few examples of the goals with reasons why they were chosen.
Each pillar has the Goal on one side and an explanation with further information on each side.















The 17 global goals:

Goal 1: No Poverty

Goal 2: Zero hunger

Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being

Goal 4: Quality Education

Goal 5: Gender equality

Goal 6: Clean Water and sanitation

Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Goal 10: Reduced Inequality

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Goal 13: Climate Action

Goal 14: Life below Water

Goal 15: Life on Land

Goal 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions

Goal 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal

Sharing with Our World Tuesday

16 comments:

  1. Very nice. Ah, just off the Strand, near Waterloo Bridge. They are all admirable targets and I hope in my lifetime I will see some ticked off.

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  2. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we attain all those goals? The tree planting and ancient woodland designations are great ideas. Look forward to seeing those ancients pictured on your blog.

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  3. These goals are utterly noble and if we work together in the world actually achievable imo. Haha ... a growing bucket list is, indeed, a likely sign of increased longevity!

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  4. How wonderful! Thank you for sharing these goals and the commentary on the back of many of them. I learned a great deal.

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  5. I love this movement - we need trees and clean air!

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  6. A NSW court has fined a property developer and a demolition company a combined $155,000 over the illegal clearing of 21 trees to make way for a possible new boarding house in Sydney’s NW suburbs. The land contained remnants of critically endangered Sydney turpentine ironbark forest and 41 trees, including a 22-metre tall silky oak, jacarandas, palm trees and a 20-metre tall Himalayan cedar (Sydney Morning Herald 12/7/21)!!

    Thank goodness your organisations are trying to SAVE trees.

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  7. What a great initiative! Hope all goals will be achieved.

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  8. Wow, this is amazing!! I love big bold goals and these are it.

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  9. Interesting. Hope the goals are achieved!

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  10. Wow! Wonderful out door photos ~ nature and history ~ Xo

    Living in the moment,

    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  11. I love that idea - we need more trees!

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  12. What a great place and a great idea too.

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  13. This seems a much better use for the space at Somerset House than the next thing planned which I saw on the news tonight! A giant dodgems. There probably is some good idea behind it and I wasn't really listening but very different from this exhibition.

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  14. There are some sensible goals there. But at the same time we develop the green fields to build more houses, roads, shopping centres while importing food that we should be growing on fields now full of houses. Politicians are full of BS.

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  15. Wonderful goals. I will look forward to your posts on the 70 trees. I hope some of them will come to fruition. I was just reading about an algae that can be sprayed on beaches that will clean the air similarly to trees. However, no one wants it on their beaches because it will turn the sand a greenish color. Can we get used to green sand to create breathable air? Stay tuned!

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