I’m sitting with Hattie Phillips in the OWLS community garden in Maldon during one of the summer heatwaves. She was one of the first WWF Youth Ambassadors, and is currently studying at Black Mountains College in Wales. She is a very fine communicator, and already has great experience of speaking in public, performing in theatre, engaging with community action and national climate events. She says, “We can’t solve the climate crisis without nature,” and notes that “Everyone can make a difference, but not everyone has a voice.” She also says, engagement with activism was so exciting: “I went from being one person to being a community.”

Hattie was at COP26, speaking early one morning to a group of CEOs who ate their croissants and drank their coffee and completely ignored the two young people ready to talk. “We said,” says Hattie, “We don’t care how much money you have. If you have children or grandchildren, they will be exposed to the effects of your actions for decades.”

She wrote and performed a one-person play in 2026 called “Letters of Land and Loss.”

Her heroes are the activists making so many sacrifices.

Her book recommendation is Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “The Service Berry.”

Her recommendation: “Go outside, connect with the land.”

My new book will be supporting this podcast, and will be published in March 2027 by Unbreaking/5m. It’s called "Bamboo and Butterfly: Transformation and Story for Climate and Nature Recovery."