As climate chaos takes hold, wildlife in Derbyshire, across the UK and globally, faces unprecedented challenges.
This illustrated talk by Tim Birch – Conservation Manager for Derbyshire Wildlife Trust will examine the threats to our wildlife in Derbyshire and the UK from climate change and what can be done to help it cope and survive as the heat gets turned up.
He will also explore the implications for wildlife and climate legislation if we decide to pull-out of the European Union.
The event is free but there will be a collection. Refreshments will be available. Click here for the Facebook event link and let us know if you can help involve sympathetic organisations. They are welcome to have a stall and an input.
A short post this time, but Derby Climate Coalition recently took part in a demonstration against INEOS in Chesterfield, showing opposition to fracking by the company.
At a meeting, INEOS are reported to have said that they “will choose and pay for the company who will monitor them”. The audience is reported to have been very skeptical about this.
On Saturday the 7th of May, protesters met on Beeston High Street just outside Nottingham. There was a lively protest attracting much public attention about how the Conservatives have undone actions to limit climate change since they were elected a year ago.
In 2008, the Climate Change Act committed the UK to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Recognising the crisis faced and the need for urgent action, all major parties supported it. But since the current government took office on 8 May 2015, there have been a series of major policy reversals taking us backwards on climate action.
It was saddening to see the closure of Derby City Council’s Climate Change Unit on the first of April.
In 2006 the Derby Campaign against Climate Change raised climate change with Derby City Council, which prompted the then leader, Chris Williamson, to lead the development of a cross-party climate change strategy. This resulted in the adoption of the agreement to cut the Council’s own greenhouse gas emissions by 25% over five years and to address the issue across our city. All this was backed up by the setting up of the Council’s Climate Change and Energy Management Unit (CCEMU).
February 2016 global surface temperature anomalies. Photograph: NASA GISS
This week saw a lot of bad news.
One headline read “Current record-shattering temperatures are shocking even to climate scientists”. February 2016 was likely the hottest month in thousands (yes thousands) of years, as we approach the 2°C danger limit. “Stunning,” “wow,” “shocker,” “bombshell,” “astronomical,” “insane,”“unprecedented”– these are some of the words climate scientists have used to describe the record-shattering global surface temperatures in February 2016. For more on this read the Guardian report and the Observer had this follow-up item:February was the warmest month in recorded history, climate experts say
Or for a change, lets look at the reports on February’s record heat in the Daily Mail
The Chancellor said he would “put the next generation first” in Budget 2016, yet failed to mention climate change or the Paris Agreement to tackle global warming. In effect it was a Climate-wrecking’ Budget after £1bn tax breaks for oil and gas industry. Continue reading Osborne delivers climate-wrecking budget→
The above shows David Burley, a campaigner from South Yorkshire, speaking at an anti-fracking meeting last Wednesday in Amber Valley to about 50 people in Alfreton.
This part of Derbyshire is ‘pitted’ with small ex-coal mining towns. The meeting was supported by Derby Climate Coalition, Unite the Community and Amber Valley 38 Degrees. The talk was excellent, as was the discussion. The next meeting will take place at 7pm on the 30th March. The venue is to be confirmed.
We think this article from Tuesday’s Independent is rather fine:
As flooded homes painfully dry out, we should reflect and wake up to the broader truth, based not on computer predictions but the evidence in front of us, that we are entering a new climatic age.
Public perception of a changing world is sometimes slow to materialise, unless it is jolted by exceptionally violent events. Once the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945 there was no doubt that humanity was in a different place; and similarly, the fall of New York’s twin towers in September 2001 unmistakably signalled a new world order. Continue reading Sceptical about climate change? Just consider December’s weather→
Wednesday, December 16, 2015 from 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Peter, Adrian, David and Leon return from the Paris Climate Talks. Hear what they have to say. Help us decide waht to do next. Some mince pies and mulled wine might be available so let us know if you can make it. We are meeting in room 11, no need to sign in. A short Steering Group Meeting will be held at 5.45. All welcome.
We are putting the following question to the full meeting of the Council on 6 pm, 25 November 2015.
Considering that 80% of all known fossil fuels must stay in the ground to avoid warming by more than 2 degrees as well as the need to ensure Pension funds are not left in these potentially stranded assets, will the Council recommend that the Derbyshire County Council Pension Fund
Immediately freeze any new investments in fossil fuels?
Divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds within 5 years
