So much has happened on the climate front since my last column. Disasters related to the climate crisis are increasing at an alarming rate.
In Libya for example, the Red Crescent estimates that 11,300 people were killed directly by the cataclysmic flooding, and the UN say 9000 are still missing. Survivors face multiple problems, with disease, homelessness and lack of food. We may never know an accurate figure for the death toll. On the coast of Libya’s Cyrenaica region, Al Bayda recorded 414 millimetres of rain in one day. Nearby, the port city of Derna received seventy times the usual rainfall for the month.
The dams should have been better maintained, but Libya has never recovered from the chaos following the bombings led by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2011 and has not had enough help to rebuild its economy. The overwhelming quantity of rainfall that fell would have caused catastrophe in even the richest country. Back in 2007, Sheffield was lucky not to have faced a similar disaster, when the Ulley Dam was so near to collapse. Imagine if the Sheffield storm had been worse, and the dam had collapsed. It would have taken out an electricity substation and destroyed part of the M1 and the surrounding villages in its wake.
Global heating is already having severe consequences with temperatures so far rising on average by 1.2 degrees. But scientists are saying we are currently on course for between 2 or 3 degrees of warming somewhere we haven’t been for the past 4 million years. This will create a climate that is uninhabitable in most parts of the world.
In Sheffield, Extinction Rebellion protested outside the office of Lloyd’s Insurers, Arch to urge them not to insure the West Cumbria Coal Mine. This will produce 9 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide every year, further adding to our climate crisis.
Despite this, Prime Minister Sunak decides that now is the time to roll back our Green commitments. Under Sunak’s “new approach”, a 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars has been delayed by five years, the 2035 phaseout of gas boiler sales has been loosened and landlords will not be obliged to insulate their rental properties to higher standards. He is moving the country fast in the wrong direction, to pander to the right-wing press barons and the oil and gas industry. Labour shamefully has not committed to restoring the Net Zero targets Sunack is scrapping. But even car industry giants like Ford and power companies like Eon have slammed the Government for taking such a backward step.
Tony Juniper, Chair of Natural England, tweeted “Science is very clear. It’s not net zero in 2050 that must be the headline goal, but cutting emissions before then, including 50% cut by 2030. Delaying action deepens peril for our children & grandchildren. Think Libya, Greece, mass migration & all the rest, & on a massive scale.”
Green MP Caroline Lucas responded to the announcement tweeting “PM turning utter hypocrisy into a new art form. It’s “wrong to chase the short term headlines” he says, precisely as he does so. “I want to build a better future for our kids” exactly as he sets about trashing it. “I won’t take the easy way out” when he’s doing exactly that (palm face emoji).
The degree of threat to our survival, posed by the climate and nature emergencies, will make the COVID-19 pandemic seem like a walk in the park. They demand immediate action. We need to be on a war footing.
Years of petitions, protests, political campaigns, boycotts and changes in individual lifestyle and diet have left us on a course to extinction. So what hope is there for change? One possibility is the legal route.
Our Government (along with 31 other nations) are being taken to court by 6 youngsters from Portugal who say they were driven to act by their experiences in the wildfires that ripped through the Leiria region in 2017, killing 66 people and destroying 20,000 hectares of forest.
After another summer in which wildfires raged across Portugal, Greece, Spain, Croatia and Italy, the young people will argue that the 32 European nations’ policies to tackle global heating are inadequate and in breach of their human rights obligations.
Client Earth is also taking the Government to court because they believe their recent announcements risk throwing the UK even further off track from meeting its legally binding targets, putting the future of its citizens in danger. Supporting groups like this financially could have a real impact on Government policy.
Another way to promote change is Non-Violent Direct Action. I don’t think violence is the answer and protests that disrupt the general public can be very counterproductive. We need actions that directly impact the climate criminals. These are the business leaders, politicians, corporations, billionaires, press barons and banks that are actively responsible for destroying our children’s future. Chris Packham broadcast an excellent Channel 4 documentary, “Is it time to break the Law?” in which he examines how people can challenge the current system, to speed our transition away from fossil fuels to a sustainable society. His conclusion – “Getting arrested is now the ethical thing to do”.
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