Climate change: doing the impossible

With the IPCC report out I'd done a news release over the weekend but felt it didn't really say what I wanted - so this morning I threw together this piece which I'm hoping local daily papers might accept as a 'Comment' piece. Now I should get back to looking at the next stage of Stroud's Environment Strategy paper - Scrutiny meeting this Thursday so yet another draft will be created - so far it is still looking good....but some gaps...more of those in a later blog....

Photo: Ruscombe valley - what a glorious Sunday it was - even sat outside in the afternoon

Climate change: doing the impossible

Tackling climate change can seem impossible. Yet history is full of examples of things happening that previously seemed impossible.

The latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report confirms again that the disastrous effects of climate change are already happening and will accelerate significantly without major policy changes. Michael Meacher, former Environment Minister, writes: "What we, and the government, need to get our minds around is that we are at war: at war against climate catastrophe, presenting us a far greater threat towards our survival than 1939."

So why aren't we moving to renewable power like wind and solar, introducing personal carbon allowances, massively increasing energy conservation and more? How can we end this carbon addiction? Well, like with other addictions, we have first got to recognise the problem.

Denial is not an option. Scary reports do little to help: indeed can paralyse people with fear. We need more real communication about the ways forward: not more spin. Al Gore's excellent film 'An Inconvenient Truth' has been a great help. More and more people are waking up; businesses are taking action, local Councils are developing strategies and new groups like Transition Town Stroud are developing local solutions. Even China has made dramatic shifts with new legislation not least because of the impact floods and drought will have on its food supplies.

Opposition in this country is also growing to criminal plans like new coal power plants and expansions in aviation: over 3,500 objections to Bristol airport expansion alone. The word 'criminal' is not used lightly: the average Somali is about 100 times more likely to die from events caused by climate change than the average American, despite emitting roughly 16,000 times less carbon. We must cut emissions not create more.

We can all play our part in our own lives but we also urgently need changes in government policy. We can write letters, use our vote and join the march on 24th February in London against Trident: money spent on nuclear weapons could instead meet the threat of climate change and offer much greater security, justice and peace.

The changes ahead mean that nothing short of a new human era is in the making. The choices we make now will determine whether the birthing is successful. The move away from the needs of more economic growth to the basis of what is good for humanity has started. Let's make it happen.