After the screening of the People’s Emergency Briefing, I was asked to speak for two minutes about what Wanstead Climate Action does, but it’s fair to say went off on some tangents, and failed to get as far any attempt to inspire. This is roughly what I meant to say:
Wanstead Climate Action is about raising awareness of how and why to stop global warming and environmental destruction, just like this film. It’s also about what comes after that awareness.
The film began with a statement that the climate and nature emergency “needs a response similar to the scale of the Second World War”. Since we’re in what’s called the Churchill Room, I’d like to start with some Winston Churchill quotes. These are mostly from the 1930s when he was warning about German rearmament while the “inconvenient truth” of that time was ignored. Whatever you think of Churchill, I hope the analogy is clear.
I never "worry" about action, but only about inaction.
There is no greater mistake than to suppose that platitudes, smooth words, and timid policies offer a path to safety.
(Through our own folly and refusal to face realities and deal with evil tendencies while they were yet controllable, we have allowed brutal and intolerant forces to gain almost unchallenged supremacy)
The storm clouds are gathering...
We must recognise that we have a great treasure to guard; that the inheritance in our possession represents the prolonged achievement of the centuries
Here, I’d note that the inheritance we need to defend in this case is not just democracy and freedom but millions of years of evolution of the natural world. Churchill goes on to recommend:
We must not despair, we must not for a moment pretend that we cannot face these things.
If present dangers were to be averted there must be loyal aid from the whole masses of the people; there must be voluntary and spontaneous comradeship; and there must even be a measure of self-imposed discipline.
That was Churchill. We have a world to lose, but also a world to win. It’s not surprising that is overwhelming or too much to contemplate sometimes, but as with anything overwhelming, the thing to do is to break it into more manageable pieces, and ask other people to help in whatever needs doing.
Wanstead Climate Action was started in 2019, unrelated to a previous group with a similar name. (So history does indeed repeat.) This was not long after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its report showing how big the difference would be between 1.5 and 2 °C of warming. I wasn’t there quite at the beginning, but it began with talks based on the science, the huge risks and need for radical action, like the PEB film now. We’re not at all prescriptive about what action is needed. WCA is about whatever works and keeps climate and nature near or at the top of the political agenda where it belongs and inform politicians about the hard truths. Unfortunately there are appeasers working for vested interests to drown out the scientific facts and make them seem irrelevant.
WCA does a wide range of campaigning and practical work, and when someone comes to us with a good idea, we try to support it. For example, last year a local naturalist spearheaded a 1700-strong petition for Redbridge council to declare a nature emergency, and so now there’s a chance to get involved in the development of the nature recovery plan. Or someone might come to us with an idea to host an educational film in the library. And whatever skills you have or time to spare, we can make use of, because there’s more than enough to do. We need ten times more climate action, so we need ten times more climate activists.
In this way, the “life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit upland”. To change everything, we need everyone. Everyone has something they can contribute.
Awareness is necessary. It may be true that MPs vary in how much they care to know the science, but there is a huge gap to be filled there. Researchers asked a factual multi-choice question about urgency of reducing emissions and MPs got the answer correctly no more often than you’d expect by chance. And if they’d seen the full presentation by Prof Kevin Anderson here, there is surely no way they could support new oil and gas, and would be calling for aviation to contract, not expand. To listen to politicians in the media, you might forget that permitting new oil and gas would push us past 3 degrees C of warming and the tipping points Tim Lenton mentions.
We can inform ourselves and inform others as well. We can use tonight to start conversations with neighbours and colleagues. Please promote the screenings to public and MPs, but also consider joining appropriate groups for you, whether conservation or campaigning. Please check out Wanstead Climate Action online and sign up to our monthly newsletter.
Awareness of urgency, like so many things, is necessary but not sufficient. We need to associate with others to amplify our effect and discover our agency. The best predictor of whether someone takes an environmental action is whether their friends have set the example or invited them to join in. So we can set examples in the community and demonstrate to politicians.
As individuals and working together, each of us has some scope for practical action, such as installing solar panels or taking up active travel, or moving our banking, pensions and investments. And if I have time to, let’s mention other groups that can do with your help and provide opportunities for this action. There are a network of Transition Town groups around the country, set up decades ago to prepare for the transition away from fossil fuels for whatever reason, and to develop skills for that transition. These include Transition Leytonstone which does community food growing and reducing food waste; and Transition Ilford, which does fortnightly energy and repair cafes. Wanstead Climate Action itself puts on repair cafes at Christ Church hall, and annually that saves about 10 tonnes of carbon, as much as two British adults produce. There are also local conservation groups including WREN wildlife group and the River Roding Trust, clearing up local watercourses for wildlife and people.
And then the bigger changes can only be nationally and internationally. Nationally: Friends of the Earth, of course. WCA is now part of the Friends of the Earth groups network, so has worked on national campaigns such as for “United for Warm Homes”, an adequate programme to retrofit houses with insulation, and currently for “Planet Over Profit” for a new bill to enforce business’s environmental responsibilities.
Then Greenpeace of course with a local branch in Walthamstow. Two less well known I’d recommend are 350.org and Zero Hour, currently proposing a Nature and Security Bill.
Our finest hour may be in overcoming some of the vested interests and institutions that humans have created. So some WCA members may also be up for demonstrating, and we journey together to lobby or have fun and make ourselves heard and visible in Central London, or back in 2021 in Glasgow for COP26. If we don’t act on our knowledge, then people may not see the knowledge as salient. We need far more climate action, so should be nurturing its green shoots.
We will have a follow-on meeting Thu 18 June, Wanstead House, to explore our reactions in more depth, including ideas for action. WCA meetings are the third Monday of every month at Wanstead House at 7.30pm and all are welcome.
Blog by CK. Not necessarily the view of WCA.
Wanstead Climate Action 