Our Earth Week – FAQ

What is Our Earth Week? A nature and climate-themed week on community radio stations throughout the UK.  Timed to coincide with the global COP29 talks in Baku, Azerbaijan.   The basic idea is that every show features nature or climate in some way, either by dedicating the entire show to the theme, or simply mentioning it even briefly! There will be a ready-made package of stand-alone audio pieces for presenters to play, along with information supplied for them to use.

What is CREN?  CREN stands for the Community Radio Environment Network. This emerged from last year’s Our Earth Week because we needed a name for the growing community of stations taking part.   You don’t have to sign up to anything to be part of CREN – it’s a very informal network.

When is Our Earth Week? Monday 10th -Sunday 16th November 2025.

Is there a theme? Our theme this year is Water. We will talking about our coastlines, our lakes, our rivers, our drinking water, about flooding and drought, and so much more.

Who can take part? Any community station or podcaster in the UK can take part, just by signing up to be a participant on the CREN website, or by emailing crenuk1@gmail.com to let us know.

What do we have to do? As a station, try and get as many of your programmes for that week as possible to feature either the climate or nature in some way, big or small.  If you are only able to make a small contribution, try and persuade even just the prime time shows to join in.  Or even just one show!  Even that will make a difference. 

We are very busy – how can we make this as easy as possible?  One way to make this easy is simply to download and print out the OEW Handbook.  This contains infographics, quiz questions, and talking points for your presenters to use as content.  Print this out and keep it in the studio for your presenters to use and consult during their show, or send it to them as an electronic file. There will also be a folder of ready-made audio files: download these and put them on your system, and your presenters can simply select one of these to play during their show.  You’ll also find an index to the audio files for ready reference.

What if we don’t feel comfortable talking about things we’re not expert on? You don’t have to be an expert to talk about many aspects of climate matter and nature.  None of us are experts; none of us knows everything, and you’ll probably find you know more than you think, and that you have more to say than you think.   Also, our listeners will really appreciate your own unique take on your chosen subject (like how polluted is your local area for example?, or do you not have good access to green spaces?). And to help get ideas, there are loads of ideas for talking points, debates, music, facts, trivia, quizzes etc to help you give you ideas and moral support.

It sounds like it’s all going to be a bit doom and gloom, a bit heavy.  Isn’t this going to make our listeners switch off?  It is certainly a very difficult subject, but it’s actually pretty easy to make it more positive to keep listeners feeling hopeful, engaged, and listening!  Last year’s OEW featured loads of positive stories, funny exchanges, light-hearted quizzes, lots of fantastic music, and lots of encouraging support for listeners to help cut their carbon footprint.

Our shows have nothing to do with the climate or nature – how will this work?  The climate crisis is so all-encompassing that every single subject will be connected to it in some way.  There are lots of ideas on how different shows can engage in the Handbook.

We don’t have the resources to record any content for this week, how can we take part? There is a whole folder of ready-made audio files for you in the OEW Audio Library available on Google Drive if you sign up for the week.  And last year quite a few stations uploaded content they had made to the Library, as well as taking from it.

What will be in the Audio Package?  You’ll find a series of short audio pieces to play each day, ranging from 1 min to 5 mins long.  There will also be a folder with longer pieces for you to choose from.

How will we know what other stations are doing for OEW? There is a CREN facebook page where you can keep up with what’s happening, and lots of stations connect up on social media by following the Our Earth Week account on Instagram and using the hashtag #OurEarthWeek and by making collaborative posts.   

OEW on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/our.earth.week/

CREN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/949757269338572/

What is the point of OEW?  there is a growing consensus that we have only a couple of years to make changes to the way we live if we are stay on a trajectory where the human race survives.  Tipping points have already started tipping; glaciers are melting, the permafrost is releasing methane, and as they are cut down, rainforests are becoming carbon producers rather than carbon sinks.  The global south is suffering from catastrophic climate disasters right now, and it is the global north that is largely to blame.

As broadcasters we have a moral responsibility to highlight what’s happening and change the conversation so that it’s one of much more urgency.   Community radio is likely to become even more important over the coming years as the focus turns more and more to communities as a way of staying resilient in the face of what’s to come.  Antonio Guterres, the UN Sec General, has said that the global situation is now a Code Red.  We need to respond to this with call with appropriate urgency, and if the mainstream media aren’t going to do what’s necessary, we, as a community broadcaster, will.

It’s really important to also hold all the positive and inspiring thoughts in our minds when dealing with climate change and for this to be part of the week as well.  We are part of an amazing web of life on earth and intimately connected to such amazing diversity, and how if we put our minds to it, we could create a world that’s so much better, fairer, and happier to live in than the one we live in now.