‘I don’t think people are fully aware of severity of crisis’

ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners from Henley were among 1,200 people who gathered in Westminster for a landmark climate and nature briefing.

The National Emergency Briefing was held at Westminster Central Hall on Thursday last week and was attended by more than 80 MPs, as well as leaders from business, culture, faith, sport and the media.

Kate Oldridge, executive director of Greener Henley, volunteered at the event, which was also attended by the charity’s trustee Giles Trendle and chairman Mike Barry.

Guests heard from nine experts who explained the risks faced by various sectors as a result of climate change including public health, food security, the economy, the environment and national security.

Ms Oldridge said: “I think people see stories about climate change and the destruction of nature on TV and the news but I don’t think people generally are joining all of the dots.

“I don’t think there is a full appreciation of the severity and the immediacy of the crisis. People need to understand what we’re facing.

“We need people in Henley to start engaging with this issue as if the survival of our society depends on it. We’re at a critical stage now.

“We have to get this widespread engagement in Henley, as though we are actually in a war situation, because that’s what we’re facing.”

Mr Trendle, a former journalist who was previously the managing director of Al Jazeera, said journalism was an “essential climate solution” to cut through disinformation driven by powerful interests. He said: “To me, journalism is an essential climate solution in that it informs the public and, of course, the public vote. It’s holistic, it’s all tied together.”

Will Hearsey, a GP at the Hart Surgery in Henley, also attended and said the issue of climate change “transcends politics” and radical, immediate change was needed to protect the country’s health outcomes.

He said: “My biggest takeaway was just how radical a change is needed and how immediate this needs to be.

“Health is intertwined with our climate and biodiversity and recognising this as an emergency is important for our own health as well as the next generation’s.”

Anthony Campbell, a filmmaker from Henley, said his reason for attending was to hear from scientists to help “join up the dots”.

He said: “It was really powerful hearing from different experts and scientists in different areas and understanding how all of those things interlink. The action I will take off the back of that today is to sit down with my daughters and say, we have to stop eating so much meat.

“I’ve heard it before, but the penny has never really dropped. It’s not particularly radical but it is radical if everyone does it. Then we’ve got radical change.”

Professor Mike Berners-Lee, an expert in carbon footprinting at Lancaster University who chaired the event, said grassroots groups like Greener Henley were helping to “drive action” at the community level.

He said: “Grassroots, science-led groups like Greener Henley play a pivotal role in driving meaningful action at the community level.”

Opening the event, he said it was about “resetting the national conversation in the face of growing misinformation”.

TV presenter and naturalist Chris Packham introduced the experts, calling on the elected officials in the audience to “listen to the science”.

Professor Hugh Montgomery spoke about the health implications of climate change in the UK. He told the room how the climate crisis impacts the social determinants which are the main drivers of disease and suffering.

He said: “Economists are warning we could lose up to 50 per cent of the global economy. Without that, we don’t have an education system, we sure as hell don’t have a health service.

“The climate emergency is a health emergency, and it is about time we started treating it as one.”

Professor Tim Lenton, director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, outlined various climate tipping points which would make the UK a “less habitable” place to be if reached.

One such tipping point was the collapse of a critical Atlantic current, which he warned would see temperatures in London plunge to -20C and frozen for three months in extreme winters.

Prof Lenton said the tipping point in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation would see the country completely dependent on food imports, with no possibility for growing crops.

“We already know this circulation is weakening,” he said. “We know it’s switched on and off without human activities, 25 times during the last Ice Age, we know the dramatic changes in climate that brought to our part of the world.”

Prof Lenton said it was vital to do “everything in our power” to limit the time spent above 1.5C of global warming, and the amount of temperature we go above 1.5C.

He said that a “radical acceleration” in adopting zero emissions technologies could create “positive tipping points” in which changes in behaviours towards net zero become “self-accelerating”.

l What do you think? Write to: Letters, Henley Standard, Caxton House, 1 Station Road, Henley or email letters@henleystandard.co.uk