DEPRESSING news recently: The World Meteorological Organisation confirmed that it’s “more likely than not’’ that the world will go above 1.5 degrees of warming.
This means we are more likely to be subject to extreme weather events, more flooding and food supply insecurity along with increased physical and mental health problems. If this temperature rise takes us over a ‘tipping point’ the future will be even more uncertain.
I read recently that 74% of adults feel ‘’very or somewhat’’ worried about climate change (O.N.S.* October 2022), and a 2021 study of 16–25-year-olds at Bath University revealed that 68.6 % thought that governments were not “doing enough to avoid a climate catastrophe.” I think that the young are understandably more anxious but all ages are liable to suffer from ‘Climate or ECO Anxiety’. I’d say anyone not experiencing some anxiety is not aware of the situation!
So, what can we do? Apparently taking personal action helps alleviate the anxiety, I think we all know that consuming less, reducing our car and air miles, turning down our thermostats and fitting solar panels helps. I’ve changed my old gas combi for an Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP), that’s still expensive even with the £5k grant but I’m lucky I can afford it, a lot of people are not in that positioN
Personal action is not enough, we need our government to take the initiative now and fund a programme to insulate housing, give grants for Solar PV and accelerate the transition away from gas heating to ASHPs. All this has to be made genuinely affordable otherwise the better off will tend to be the ones who end up with cheaper energy bills. The additional bonus is that this creates new jobs in building and renewable energy sectors.
As unitary councillors we will do what we can, Somerset are developing a climate strategy which I am keeping an eye on, plus a local nature recovery strategy. Government cuts to local authority funding (40% since 2010) mean there’s not so much for tackling the Climate and Biodiversity Emergency; Somerset should lobby them to give us the money to get on with it!
*Since 2020 they been giving an estimate of the chances of the world breaking the 1.5C threshold in any one year. Back then they predicted there was less than a 20% chance of breaking 1.5C in the five years ahead but last year this had increased to 50%, and now it’s jumped to 66%.
*Office for National Statistics
