Have you woken up any day recently, looked out of the window and wondered what season it is? The hottest June on record followed by what could be the wettest July! 2023 will be the tenth successive year that temperatures have reached 1⁰C above average pre-industrial levels. It’s no wonder we’re all mixed up. We’re all feeling the effects of global climate change. In the early nineties I chuckled when sent a Flood Action Pack by the Environment Agency that consisted of a plastic bag and a whistle thinking our house on Waterloo St, Cockermouth was safe from flooding. Oops! How wrong you can be, as I discovered in 2004, 2009 and again in 2014.
With change comes challenge. Human beings have survived through the ages, like all living organisms, by adapting to changing circumstances. But wise leadership is required to enable communities and individuals to respond in constructive ways. It’s recently been reported that organisations have written to Rishi Sunak to warn him that he needs to show leadership on the green agenda. Who were these agencies? Some woke left-wing do-gooders? No, actually it was 100 companies that including Tesco, M&S, Amazon and BT. And who reported it? Well not some militant firebrand. It was The Times.
So, everybody is waking up to the fact that we need to lead more sustainable lives at every level, individual, family, community, country, world. We need to care more for our fragile planet and we need to invest more in the transition to more sustainable ways of being. The only question that remains is how? Political parties from across the spectrum now boast of their “green” agendas making claims about how much they care about the environment. But do they really mean it? They are like the guests that turn up to the fancy dress party wearing the wrong costume. Their actions do not fit their words.
Sunak has been openly criticised by government experts this week for his “lackadaisical” approach to the climate emergency (Lord Stern). We in the Green Party are sometimes told that we ought to “live in the real world,” but maybe it is us that are living in the real world, a world that requires urgent, inspiring and committed leadership and action, not just platitudes. The other parties can carry on their childish mud-slinging games while Rome burns, but we will just carry on caring and working for the better world we believe can be created for the sake of our children and grandchildren, and our precious home.
Keith Fitton
Chair Allerdale and Copeland Green Party
Published in Local Newspapers
