With around 3,000 green spaces, London is Europe’s greenest city. But with the news that this is the 10th consecutive month of record temperatures, the climate emergency is coming for us all. How we act right now is critical. Thankfully people power is strong: meet those planting large and small seeds across our city to champion the change that needs to come.
Tayshan Hayden-Smith, 27
TV presenter, author, and founder of Grow to Know
Ladbroke Grove
Just 19 at the time of the Grenfell fire, just across the way from his North Kensington home, footballer and now TV presenter, author and activist Tayshan Hayden-Smith had the seed of an idea. “Grow to Know was born in the face of adversity — it’s about the amazing benefits of nature when facing challenges.” He spotted a patch of barren common ground and channeled the community’s grief into planting donated plants to create a shared garden in the shadow of the Westway. “If we start to see nature and gardening as solutions then the challenges will start to be solved,” says Hayden-Smith, whose two young children give him “a big stake in the future”. “Things like food security and air pollution and mental and physical health — there are a whole load of social challenges that I believe nature has the ability to solve.”
Anjali Raman-Middleton, 20
Founder of Choked Up UK
Lewisham
“Choked Up is a campaign started by black and brown high schoolers in London to strengthen clean air legislation and ensure everyone has the right to breathe clean air,” says founder Anjali Raman-Middleton, who grew up along the South Circular, one of the most polluted roads in London. “We were angry that it was our communities who were feeling the worst impacts of environmental crisis in the UK and knew that we had to take action.” They launched #Mayor4CleanAir and installed fake road signs with messages to raise awareness of air pollution and its disproportionate impacts on marginalised communities. “My family did not know just how toxic the air we were breathing was. The fight against air pollution has to happen now.”
Issey Gladston, 25
Founder of Hothouse book club
Hackney
Hothouse Book Club is a digital and IRL book club based in London that analyses the climate crisis through a social justice lens every six weeks. It was founded by Issey Gladston and Diyora Shadijanova in 2022 and currently has more 300 active members and regularly sells out its events hosted at Housmans Radical Bookshop. “I was interested in starting a book club built around environmental issues,” says founder, climate consultant Issey Gladston, who also runs the podcast and socials @sexyclimatechange. “It’s much more inspiring to learn about it with a group of people who are also passionate about tackling the issue rather than learning about it in isolation and falling into a spiral of despair.”
Nadeem Perera, 30
Wildlife TV presenter, author and co-founder of Flock Together
Newham
Birdwatching collective Flock Together, founded in London by friends Nadeem Perera (who has since moved to Bristol) and Ollie Olanipekun, was initially a way to get the POC community out into nature — challenging the underrepresentation in that space. But now, what started as a handful of 15 people will regularly be 300 strong. “We’ve engaged a massive audience,” says Perera. “So now, how can we bring our energy, our ideas, our cultural creativity into this natural history, outdoor space? For whatever reason, we [as POC] experience hardships and suffering more and nature is a very, very accessible, easy way for people to engage.” Perera is also a youth sports coach. “That’s a big thing for me: a cross-pollination of these spaces. We have to meet people where they’re at. We’re breaking down those barriers and making the outdoors and environmental space accessible for a new audience.”
Fehinti Balogun, 29
Actor, activist and part of the team behind Green New Rider
Tottenham
When Dune and A Gentleman in Moscow actor Fehinti Balogun stood up to introduce his film Can I Live to the COP26 summit, he was doing it for people like himself, who aren’t usually represented in these spaces. He didn’t stop there. Uniting with friends in the industry, “we took it upon ourselves to create the Green New Rider campaign”. The aim is that actors use their contracts to push for sustainable filming, which encourages production to be a bit more radical about how they are making work. “So, if I share my trailer on the days I’m not filming, in return, you will not use diesel generators. It keeps pushing the green agenda on both sides.”
“It isn’t true that we will have a bountiful future if we don’t change the way that we are living and consuming and the way business practices are made,” says Balogun. “I want an incredible career that isn’t built upon a destruction of resources.”
Elliot Worsop, 29
Founder and co-director of Football for Future
Brixton
“Nothing is more important than protecting the planet,” says Football for Future founder Elliot Worsop. “And no social phenomenon is more powerful than football.” The Brighton fan was confounded that our national sport could drive change in racial justice, gender equality and even food poverty, but there was “a deafening silence around climate advocacy”. Now, his “home of sustainability in football” delivers climate education workshops for young fans and players, as well as consulting with clubs and leagues to raise climate awareness and drive sustainable impact. “Climate change will be the defining challenge of our generation, and the future of football will be affected too,” says Worsop. “More than 120,000 English grassroots games being called off annually.”
Daze Aghaji, 24
Political candidate and climate campaigner
Canal boater
Climate campaigner and former political candidate Daze Aghaji considers herself “a vessel who is in service to the climate and ecological crisis”. Living on a barge on London’s waterways, she sees first-hand the ecology of our city and has found solace in nature after a tumultuous childhood. Starting off in Extinction Rebellion, she moved into environmental communications and is now a facilitator for people to create art for better tomorrows and better visions. “Climate change is merely a warning sign and for us to really think about our very disruptive relationship with the Earth. We have taken and taken and very rarely go back to replenish. It’s about circularity.”
Kalpana Arias, 29
Climate activist, ecosomatics educator and founder of Nowadays On Earth
Peckham
Building greener cities must be top of the agenda as we reach this critical time. Technologist Kalpana Arias’s social enterprise Nowadays On Earth is advocating for contact with nature and working across technology, gardening, and urban design. “We provide resources, consultations, educational content, programmes, and workshops to close the gap between humans and nature. Through our programmes we support community resilience and develop the knowledge and tools to envision a world where all species flourish and catalyse nature-based solutions to the challenges of our generation.” Having researched technological ecologies for more than seven years and spoken at the United Nations and The Eden Project, Arias is now a trustee for GROW charity. “Today, concrete outweighs every tree, bush and shrub on the planet so in the middle of the polycrisis we need to start turning grey to green.”
