NAILSWORTH town councillor and member of the Green Spaces working party, Shelley Rider is writing monthly columns on green living.
Want to know what's going on with the climate? Then the National Emergency Briefing is for you.
This is a film hosted by Chris Packham which brings together climate experts with MPs and the public with a series of short presentations and comments from the public around a coffee table.
The film considers the response needed to the biggest crises since World War Two to affect the UK.
It explores the notion that living systems are breaking down and that 85 per cent of the public want tougher action by governments.
It was attended by 90 participants at a showing in Nailsworth on June 1.
Weather
Extreme weather events are happening more often, like the floods in Germany in 2021 where 220 people were killed, or the heatwave this year in the UK in May.
Our infrastructure is not resilient to today’s climate, let alone tomorrow’s, where up to 3 degrees of warming is predicted.
But all is not lost; Copenhagen has redesigned its centre to create a landscape that can mitigate flooding and rising waters by clever redesign of outdoor spaces and houses.
Climate CO2 in the atmosphere is rising at alarming rates; we are now at 1.5 degrees of warming since the industrial revolution, and there are dire prospects at 3/4 degrees of warming with systemic collapse of infrastructure and food production.
The physics doesn’t care about the politics.
Tipping Points
We are underestimating the pace of change, and there is a real possibility that the Atlantic Ocean could lose the Gulf Stream, tipping the UK into minus 20 degrees in winter and extremely hot in summer.
Food Security
This affects every family in the UK with failure of harvests one out of every two years with 2 degrees of warming.
One solution is to move towards a plant-based diet and to reduce food waste.
At the moment, 85 per cent of land in the UK is used for animal production, which is highly inefficient.
Health
The effects of climate change on the health system are profound.
There could be a socio-economic collapse and food supply collapse alongside health risks from pollutants with respiratory disease and obesity costing over 126 billion per year.
A climate emergency is a health emergency.
National Security
The climate crises are fuelling instability across the world with threats from ISIS and Afghanistan due to instability.
In the Arctic, there is a threat from Russia wanting access to shipping routes, and there are cascading crises with the prospect of ungovernable states.
Nature
The natural world is our support system, and the UK is in the bottom 10 per cent of countries in terms of biodiversity.
Only 14 per cent of rivers are in a good condition in terms of environmental health.
There is a need to view nature as critical infrastructure, and as one commentator put it, "We can send a man to the moon, but we need better solutions for our own shit."
Economics
The transition to a greener planet is not as expensive as we think.
It's about 4 billion a year, which is 0.2 per cent of GDP.
The transition so far to renewables is 73 per cent cheaper than predicted, but the losers shout the loudest with the petrochemicals and oil and gas industry still enjoying subsidies.
Energy Transition
Renewables offer considerable economic advantages over fossil fuels.
The price of solar panels has dropped by 70 per cent, and the sun and wind are free once you’ve installed the kit.
There was a session after the film where we talked about what we could do.
Local Action
Stroud District Council has a local action plan on climate and nature, focusing on land and water and its management.
NCAN has supported local projects such as a swift project, retrofit fayre, and Our Stories.
It's here, it's now, it's us.
27 per cent of actions are individual with lifestyle changes making a difference, so eat green, travel fresh, holiday local, end clutter, dress retro and change the system.
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