Guide To Your Walk for Earth

Thank you for joining us with your own Walk for Earth! Here’s a guide to each step.

Step 1: Choose your walk route

Step 2: Make it a fundraiser with our link to Stop Ecocide

Help reach the £20K target for Stop Ecocide! Copy and paste our sample sponsorship text to tell your friends about your walk. Use this fundraising link in your messages: https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/19962#!/DonationDetails

Step 3: Message your MP and tag them with an image from your walk

First, make a #WalkforEarthUK hashtag sign on paper or card, that you can carry with you in a bag or rucksack.

It’s easiest to write the hashtag in thick black marker pen on a strip of cardboard or fabric. But you could chalk it on a suitable surface (be considerate) if there’s one on your walk, or sew it using dark thread onto pale fabric. Or come up with your own creative way! Make sure it’s spelled correctly and is legible from snapping distance so you can photo it clearly.

On your walk, take a photo that shows your hashtag sign

If you don’t want to be looking at your phone during your walk, you could do this at the start or end.

We’d love it if you (or whoever you walk with) could be holding your sign. If you’re camera-shy you could lean the sign against something in nature. You could take the photo beside something that interests or inspires you in the living world. Make sure your hashtag sign is clearly visible and legible in the photo. Think of your MP looking at the image you’ll make. Let it be something that encourages and inspires. Your MP might appreciate nature as much as you do – let that be a point of connection.

Message your MP – and tag them to your image on your social media

Not confident with social media? See our ‘Tips on social posting’ below. In the ‘Find your MP’ section in ‘How to Join Walk for Earth’ on our website, enter your postcode in the box to find your MP and their contact details. Copy and paste our sample message to MPs into an email to your MP, and fill in the info about your own walk. Then post about your walk on your Instagram, Twitter or Facebook! It’s very easy to tag your MP (all explained in ‘Tips on using social media‘). Use hashtags for Walk for Earth (#WalkforEarthUK ) and Stop Ecocide (#ecocide law) when you post. Say why doing this walk was important to you.

If you get a response, you could share that on your social media and tag us too: it helps to raise awareness. We’d love to know how you get on – let us know using our feedback form under How to Join Walk for Earth on the website.

Thank you!

Sample message to your MP

at the beginning of the sample text below, we’ve indicated [in red] for you to add specifics about your walk and why the passing of an ecocide law matters to you. You’ll need to add the URL link to your image in the space indicated.
Feel free to adapt this text, and add anything else you think is important.

Sample text – to copy and paste into your message to your MP

I recently helped fundraise for Stop Ecocide and Earth Protector Communities by doing a [add how many miles] ‘walk for Earth’ in [add your location, or say where from and to]. I did this walk because [add how you feel about the living world in the context of climate and ecological emergency, and why the passing of an ecocide law matters to you – and to your family if that’s relevant].

Here’s an image from my walk: [add your link]. I wanted you to see what inspired me in the natural world as I walked. I am deeply affected by the fact that the UK has lost about half its biodiversity, which leaves us far below the global biodiversity average. As David Attenborough said: “This isn’t just about losing wonders of nature. With the loss of even the smallest organisms, we destabilise and ultimately risk collapsing the world’s ecosystems – the networks that support all life on Earth.”

I wonder if your own connection with nature is as important to you as it is for me and my family? Will you encourage the UK government to support an ecocide law to protect the living world for future generations?

So far, severe and widespread damage to our life-supporting ecosystems (ecocide) has been permitted by law. Now we are facing a nature-climate emergency which affects every single one of us, everywhere in the world. Treaties, agreements and civil lawsuits have not stopped the damage.

Do you agree that amending the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to include ecocide as a fifth crime against peace could provide a powerful deterrent for those in positions of responsibility who have the power and the knowledge to act differently?

Ecocide law is being considered, debated, or supported in countries all over the world, by all kinds of people from youth activists to Pope Francis, to the $59 trillion International Corporate Governance Network. Elected officials in at least 19 countries around the world have already spoken up in support of ecocide law. It would give me so much hope if you could do more to to call on the UK government to publicly support it too.

It would greatly reassure me to know that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister for the Environment, and the Minister of Justice will work to ensure the UK government publicly declares its support, both on the national and the international stage.

Please can you kindly pass on my concerns, and my request for their support of ecocide law, to the Minister of Justice, Minister for the Environment [add their name], Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Prime Minister [add their name].

Imagine how much hope it would give millions people if the UK government publicly declared its support for ecocide law. Can you play an active part in generating the hope that me and my family need to engage with the challenges ahead, by doing all you can to encourage the government to do this?

I would be very grateful to hear back from you, and to read any replies from the Ministers I’ve mentioned.

Thank you for your hard work and care.

Sincerely [your name]
[Add your full address – you must include it for your communication to be effective, even if you’re sending an email].

Adapt the text to your needs:

I’m joining forces with ‘Walk for Earth’ to do my own fundraising walk in support of Stop Ecocide. They’re working towards an international ‘ecocide law’ to make the large-scale destruction of the living world illegal. I’m also encouraging my MP to ask the UK government to express support for ecocide law.

Will you kindly sponsor me to walk [add the details of your walk, location and distance, dates and who else you are walking with, if relevant]?

All levels of donation are perfect, and no amount is too small. If you want to donate, it will help me if you say how much you give, so I can track what I’ve raised through my efforts. You will stay anonymous and none of your details will be used.

Here’s the link to use: https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/19962#!/DonationDetails

Stop Ecocide International is the driving force behind the growing global movement to make ecocide an international crime. In this work they collaborate with diplomats, lawyers, corporate leaders, NGOs, indigenous and faith groups, influencers, academic experts, grassroots campaigns and individuals.

An ecocide law would provide a much-needed deterrent to the continuing extraction and use of fossil fuels, providing a legal framework for the move towards the decarbonised economy we urgently need. It would put a duty of care for the Earth at the centre of international moral values.

Thank you so much for your support.

Tips on social posting

Not familiar with posting on social media?

Here’s how to tag your MP to an image of your walk.

To find your MP’s social media page or profile

Google your MP’s name online followed by the word ‘Facebook’ or ‘Twitter’. You should see your MP’s account name come up, and it will show you what to look for later.

It will look like something this:

for Facebook: your MP’s name (followed by ‘Facebook’)

for Twitter: @your_MP’s_name (followed by’Twitter’) or use this link to send a tweet to your MP.

for Instagram: @yourMP’sname (followed by ‘Instagram’)

If you click on the name you’ll get through to your MP’s social media page in each platform.

To tag your MP to your walk photo

Start from your own social media profile/page.

When you add your image in a post on your own page, there’s the option to type some text with it. That’s where to type @your MP’s name, as you saw it on their page. You might see their name appear in a list of other names. Just click on the right name in the list.

Then add your own message about why doing this walk was important to you, and anything else you want your MP to know. Don’t forget to check our template if it helps you come up with ideas.

Congratulations! Your MP will now see your post, and the image from your walk.