If you come to the Seed Cafe informal weekly CAM meetings on Thursdays (Marple Methodist Church 10.00-13.00) where we discuss climate change, you have had a recent discussion about this topic. The recent speech by our PM may have also sparked some conversations about net zero and climate change. As you are reading this you are interested in climate change but how have conversations you have had with people that are not immersed in it gone? Several members of CAM will be knocking on doors in Marple today (Saturday 30th September) as part of the Greenpeace Operation / Project Climate Vote and having conversations with people not immersed in climate change. So how should we speak to them?
The organisation Possible campaigns for climate action and has a guide on how to talk about climate change. In brief it suggests:
- Pick your moment and avoid putting people on the spot
- Listen and show you’ve heard
- It is urgent though! Don’t pretend that cutting carbon isn’t urgent
- Bring questions, not answers
205: How to talk about climate change so people will listen is a podcast by ‘Outrage + Optimism’ In this podcast, John Marshall offers some interesting insights into talking about climate change. He says simplicity, humanity and accountability are the three important things to consider. (start from about 17 minutes).
It is important that we have these conversations especially at this time when an election is coming soon and net zero is very much in the news.
A vote for the climate is a vote to fix everything that’s wrong with the UK – here’s why. Political leaders are planning their pledges ahead of the next election. Here’s how electing those bold enough to take strong action on climate would solve many of the UK’s most urgent problems
Greenpeace publicly announced the launch of Project Climate Vote to the media on Wednesday 20th September
- Greenpeace shared the huge list of celebrities who signed the open letter and backed the campaign! Full list includes Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Olivia Colman, Peter Capaldi, Paloma Faith, Bella Ramsey, Massive Attack, Mark Rylance, Thom Yorke, Aisling Bea, Simon Amstell, Blondie (Debbie Harry), Rob Delaney, Frankie Boyle, Sibohan Mc Sweeney, Richard Curtis, Rose Leslie, and Jessie Mei-Li, Will Poulter, Benedict Cumberbatchm, Jessie Buckley, Paapa Essiedu, Simon Pegg and Emilia Clarke
How to win votes: manifesto recommendations for a greener, fairer society | Greenpeace UK. This link includes a manifesto by which parties will be scored and judged running up to the general election.
Good News
- Tens of thousands march to kick off climate summit, demanding end to warming-causing fossil fuels | AP News
- Fast fashion’s waste problem could be solved by recycled textiles but brands need to help boost production
- Major Tory donor says he will not back Sunak due to green U-turn ‘madness’
- Richest oil states should pay climate tax, says Gordon Brown
- 8 in 10 Britons concerned about climate change – half think net zero target should be brought forward | Ipsos
- We need urban trees more than ever – here’s how to save them from extreme heat
- ‘Staggering’ green growth gives hope for 1.5C, says global energy head. IEA’s Fatih Birol says uptake of solar power and EVs is in line with net zero goal but rich countries must hasten their broader plans.
- Macron launches ‘ecological plan’ to end France’s use of fossil fuels by 2030. 50-point plan also aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% and includes new offshore wind projects
- Portuguese youths sue 33 European governments at EU court in largest climate case ever
- Fossil fuel workers have the skills to succeed in green jobs, but location is a major barrier to a just transition
- ‘Staggering’ green growth gives hope for 1.5C, says global energy chief. ‘Staggering’ green growth gives hope for 1.5C, says global energy chief
- ‘We are just getting started’: the plastic-eating bacteria that could change the world. When a microbe was found munching on a plastic bottle in a rubbish dump, it promised a recycling revolution. Now scientists are attempting to turbocharge those powers in a bid to solve our waste crisis. But will it work?
- ‘Whatever it takes’: students at 50 US high schools launch climate initiative. Green New Deal for Schools demands districts teach climate justice, update buildings and plan for extreme weather
Not so Good News?
- Why delaying the ban on petrol and diesel cars won’t slow UK’s shift to electric vehicles
- UK firefighters go to Spain for wildfire training as number of blazes surges. Exclusive: wildfires, once rare in the UK, more than doubled last year to nearly 24,000 with devastating effects on wildlife habitats.
- The truth of it – combating climate change is critical to stop wildlife extinctions | The RSPB. Forget walking into a climate emergency. We’re already in one – and so is our wildlife. The UN says * a million species around the world could be on the path towards extinction because of the catastrophic impact of our warming planet.
- What’s the carbon footprint of owning pet fish? An expert explains
- Public split on whether announcement to delay/cancel Net Zero policies was right or wrong | Ipsos
- We are being poisoned every day, so why do we keep voting for more pollution? Ask a lobbyist | George Monbiot | The Guardian
- Net Zero Roadmap: A Global Pathway to Keep the 1.5 °C Goal in Reach — 2023 Update. This is a 2023 update by the International Energy Agency to their Net Zero Roadmap is an updated pathway to net zero by 2050, taking account of the key developments that have occurred since 2021.
- Public split on whether announcement to delay/cancel Net Zero policies was right or wrong | Ipsos
- Renewables are cheaper than ever yet fossil fuel use is still growing – here’s why. Despite the meteoric rise of wind and solar, fossil energy sources have met most new demand in fast-growing economies.
- Offshore wind: a perfect storm of inflation and policy uncertainty risks derailing the UK’s main hope for a low-carbon future
- Net zero by 2050? Too late. Australia must aim for 2035
- Environmental disasters and climate change force people to cross borders, but they’re not recognised as refugees – they should be
- Net zero goal still alive, says IEA – but the world still faces major obstacles to reach it
- Green fuels in shipping face major challenges for 2050 net zero target
- Lithium-ion battery fires are a growing public safety concern − here’s how to reduce the risk
- One in six species at risk of extinction in Great Britain, say wildlife experts. State of Nature report paints bleak picture of wildlife in UK but says conservation methods are yielding results
Bad News
- How Sunak’s back-pedalling on net zero could damage efforts to decarbonise Britain’s homes
- In-depth Q & A: What do Rishi Sunak’s U-turns mean for UK climate policy? – Carbon Brief
- UK ministers scrap energy efficiency taskforce after six months. Group tasked with overseeing initiative to insulate homes and upgrade boilers was only set up in March
- Antarctica heatwave linked to climate change – after temperatures soared 39C above normal. Temperatures in an area of east Antarctica – known as “Dome C” – soared to 39C above normal, reaching -10C, on 18 March last year. Now, a recent study has pinpointed what caused the heatwave.
- Revealed: almost everyone in Europe is breathing toxic air | Air pollution | The Guardian. Guardian investigation finds 98% of Europeans breathing highly damaging polluted air linked to 400,000 deaths a year.
- Rishi Sunak has ripped up decades of cross-party consensus on climate change
- With Rosebank, Britain appears willing to leave climate plans in tatters | Oil | The Guardian
- UK go-ahead for North Sea oil and gas field angers environmental groups | Energy industry | The Guardian. Campaigners including Greta Thunberg had called for halt to Rosebank project involving Oslo-listed Equinor
- Trump falsely claims wind turbines lead to whale deaths by making them ‘batty’. Ex-president attacks clean energy by making multiple false statements at South Carolina rally
- ‘We can’t drink oil’: how a 70-year-old pipeline imperils the Great Lakes
Upcoming Events
- The Greater Manchester Green Summit 2023 is on Mon, 2 Oct 2023 08:30 – 18:30 at The Lowry Theatre, The Quays, Salford. Click on the above link to register free. I went with Gordon McKay and Greg Pike last year and it was great. I highly recommend it.
Other Media News
- George Monbiot: The climate and the rising anti-immigration agenda A video recording of a Guardian live event that I watched live on 19th Sept.
- BBC iPlayer – HARDtalk – Caroline Lucas MP – former leader Green Party of England and Wales. A recording broadcast on the 20th September where Stephen Sackur questions Caroline on why she decided to quit being an MP and on many other green issues.
- Rescue Our Rivers: The CE Bill and the role of nature based solutions. A short 9.5 minute film on one aspect of the Climate and Ecology Bill that is going through parliament at present. If you care about the climate, ecology and democracy please support this bill by supporting Zero Hour in lobbying MPs for its support.
- Chris Packham: Is It Time to Break the Law?. Chris Packham goes on a personal journey to decide for himself if it’s ethically acceptable to break the law to protest against government policies on climate change.
- Big Oil, Big Lies and Big Al… World leaders just gathered at the UN in New York to discuss the climate, ahead of the main COP 28 climate conference coming up in November 2023. The president of that event is also the CEO of one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers. So how, in the name of all things holy, can we possibly expect to make any progress there? This video has a couple of suggestions.
- In my opinion this brilliant episode from David Borlace’s climate channel ‘Just Have a Think’ is well worth 15 minutes of anyone’s time that is interested in climate change. Please give it a try and see what you think. If you have not watched any of David’s climate channel videos please give this a try, you may become a big fan like me.
- The Hockey Stick. This 14 minute program on BBC Sounds tells the remarkable story of the people behind the hockey stick: the scientists who scaled mountains and braved oceans in search of evidence, and the dramatic fallout when the world saw what they had found. This story of climategate is an early example where the fossil fuel industry falsified emails to deceive the public that man made climate change was not happening.
- Can tourism ever really be good for the climate? Eco-tourism is big business, but how much does it help versus hinder the climate? The latest of the half hour BBC World Service podcasts from ‘The Climate Question’.
- When Net Zero? The Climate Braking Distance. The recording of a lecture given earlier this week by Prof Miles Allen who came up with the idea of ‘Net Zero’. The accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere determines what global temperature is reached. So, just like a braking distance, future warming is determined by global emissions today, the year we start emission reductions, and the year we achieve net zero. The goal of climate policy is no longer up for debate: we have to reduce global emissions to net zero. We just need to decide when and how fast.
I know there is a lot in my blog this week but there has been a lot of bad news on the climate crisis recently. Hopefully, it will get you motivated to do something about it, no matter how little that might be, every little helps.