Last week I was privileged to meet James Lovelock at a presentation at Westminster. He is the world renowned scientist and exponent of the Gaia theory - in layman's terms he was one of the first thinkers to demonstrate that everything about the planet and its ecosystems are interconnected. He was speaking on space research issues and the use of satellite technology - including its use in tracking large scale desertification, deforestation and melting of the ice.

Hearing him speak made me particularly aware of the dangers of being too parochial. Boundaries matter - but when it comes to global warming and climate change if we haven't found a way of protecting the entire planet including its constituent parts, then no amount of care and attention in one locality can protect us if there are other parts that we have neglected. So its all about taking what action we can locally and internationally at one and the same time.

Which Is why I was keen to give my support to two constituency linked events this weekend.

The first was the North Staffordshire Friends of the Earth Rally on Saturday. Its members are asking for 80% cuts in carbon emissions. The good news is that the UK government is leading the way internationally in climate change negotiations as the world through the United Nations looks to establish international agreements when the Kyoto Treaty is replaced by a new agreement in 2012.

But international leadership has to be backed by actions on the ground to demonstrate that we are walking the talk.

When Parliament returns after the Easter recess there will be a Climate Change Bill debated in the committee rooms of the House of Commons. The prime minister has already said that he has asked the chairman of the new climate change commission to explore how to work towards 80% reductions. This will require a step change in just about every areas of policy, but one that is worth making.

Closer to home was the consultation meeting I attended about Chatterley Whitfield former colliery. Some might ask what that has to do with constituents in Endon, Bagnall, Brown Edge and Stanley, but it has everything to do with our area. It might technically be within the administrative boundary of the city of Stoke on Trent but generations of miners in Staffordshire worked there in its prime.

Now we have to find a way of dealing with its legacy not just of the carbon the coal pumped into the atmosphere, but its effect on the landscape and buildings that remain. It is in all our interests to find a way of dealing with the liabilities and turning them into an opportunity.

So I was pleased to be able to attend consultation meetings organised by the consultants Birse. Having worked hard to secure the £14 million to deal with the necessary land remediation - arising from the collapse of culverts and urgent need for drainage - there is now an urgent need for repair . And with this comes the opportunity to landscape a once derelict area into a heritage country park linked to the Sustrans cycle way and opportunities for green tourism.

My message to Tom McCartney head of Regeneration at north Staffordshire's Regeneration Board and to all partners in Staffordshire is that Chatterley Whitfield is a national monument. We cannot do all the work that is needed on our own. All the more reason that we work with national partners like the Regional Development Agency and English Heritage to secure national funds, just as we have done with the land remediation programme, to follow up the long term plans we have to transform the site into new uses. That will benefit the whole of North Staffordshire.

Meanwhile I am pleased that the artist Michael Collins' exhibition at Hanley museum includes Chatterley Whitfield and that Candida Lycett Green including an extract on Chatterley Whitfield in her forthcoming book on national monuments.