People’s Emergency Briefing
ARTICLES of GENERAL INTEREST
PEOPLE’S EMERGENCY BRIEFING
I recently attended a showing of this UK documentary film on climate change put on by Climate Cymru. Hosted by the naturalist Chris Packham, it features leading UK scientists and experts discussing how the environmental crisis impacts everyday life. It emphasises that the position is shifting fast and the threats that it brings have wide ranging implications. For this reason, they say that action on the subject is vital at this time, but many people are unclear on what actions to take. They are calling for a government emergency TV briefing.
The areas they covered in the main were:
Weather events: these events are changing faster than climate models have predicted and contributed to flooding, extreme heat, fires, loss of usable land mass and negative impacts on food and water security.
Public Health: issues such as increasing air pollution, changes in food availability and cost, changes in disposable income and increases in illness rates, both physical and mental, are affecting the health of the nation and can strain the resources of the NHS.
National Security: global instability and migration of people, potential food shortages, conflict over resources and ecosystem damage threatens UK stability. Also, extreme events that may require help from the Armed Forces such as flood prevention all stress the system.
The natural world: the systems that support our climate are breaking down and the resulting effects of pollution, levels of carbon capture and release and the impacts on soils and water quantity and quality are serious.
Economics: the economics of continuing with fossil fuels and non-green energy systems do not stack up. The cost savings of going green are clear in the immediate term and in the long term.
The overall message that we took away from the evening was that as things stand, we cannot afford to do nothing. It may be that everything we need to make the necessary changes, the research, the expertise, the technological solutions and the finances are all available. The question is, why are they not being actioned?
If anyone is interested, the www.nebriefing.org/peb website can provide more information.
Sue Hoddell