Little Green Space

News release

For immediate release: Thursday 4 December 2008

Contact: Richard Bunting. 01629 734616; 07753 488146. richard@littlegreenspace.org.uk

FATHER CHRISTMAS GOES GREEN IN ‘SAVE THE NORTH POLE’ CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN

Father Christmas will be dusting down his traditional green robes to support Save the North Pole – a Christmas campaign tackling climate change which is being launched by Matlock-based environmental group Little Green Space.

Father Christmas himself will be visiting Matlock on Saturday 20 December 2008 , decked out in his traditional green costume, to help Little Green Space raise funds for climate change projects in Matlock and in Africa . The Red House Stables Working Carriage Museum in Darley Dale is kindly lending him a carriage and horses for the day.

The new campaign website www.savethenorthpole.org.uk includes facts and figures, Christmas fun for kids and tips for enjoying a carbon-conscious Christmas.

Through the Save the North Pole campaign, Little Green Space will be working with community group Transition Matlock and with Bakewell-based development charity Village Aid to support projects that tackle climate change locally and in West Africa.

The campaign will also fund a special Save the North Pole grove of trees in Scotland’s Caledonian Forest as part of the forest restoration work being carried out by award-winning charity Trees for Life. Today only one per cent of the ancient Caledonian Forest survives.

Little Green Space’s Richard Bunting said: “Father Christmas’s home at the North Pole is under serious threat from global warming and climate change. Every year more of the continental ice shelf melts and the Arctic could be ice-free before 2020.

“We think it's time to give something back to Father Christmas by helping to stop the melt. It’s great that he has decided to support the campaign and, given the environmental problems we’re facing, has decided to go back to the green costume that he wore until the mid-nineteenth century.”

Father Christmas is being returned to his green origins with the help of Matlock-based costume maker and designer Jane Oldfield.

Alongside Old Saint Nick, the Arctic is home to spectacular animals including the polar bear and walrus. A global temperature rise of just two degrees centigrade could see these creatures lost forever.

For more information or to support the campaign, call Richard Bunting on 01629 734616 or 07753 488146, visit www.littlegreenspace.org.uk or www.savethenorthpole.org.uk. You can write to Little Green Space, PO Box 7590 , Matlock DE4 9BT . Please make any cheques payable to “Little Green Space”.

Little Green Space works to create rich and healthy habitats that benefit people, wildlife and the environment, and carries out awareness and education work on environmental issues.

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