Mike Parker, Chairman of SeSaME, writes…
WHEN it comes to facing the climate emergency many seem to be drawing satisfaction from the Who lyrics in “Ready, Steady, Go”: with stirring lines like “Can’t hold me back” and “Let’s get started.”
To those on the ground “Ready Steady No” fits the bill better
If you are a regular bloke, some of you may not like what’s coming next either. The emergency has a preponderance of blokes planning from an ideological stand point, rather than a pragmatic one. They need the balance of relevant, informed decision makers. With women and girls making up slightly more of the population than men and boys, having a wide range of knowledge and experiences totally inaccessible to males, we need a gender match. The same balanced need applies to men, so blokeism can rest in peace here. Then they both need a range of specialist knowledge to plan their decision making together.
So why, Covid constraints considered, haven’t we already set up a cross party climate emergency ministry, responsible to Parliament: balanced by gender, all political parties, UK’s constituent countries, the emergency services, environmentalists, climate specialists, renewable energy developers and fossil fuel phase out specialists?
It’s been done before. We knew Hitler was a potential threat in 1935 several years before the war, began building new factories next to car ones, ready for when both would need to start building war planes. An Aeronautical Production directorate was formed in 1936 with responsibility for the manufacture of airframes as well as engines, associated equipment and armaments. Churchill’s war ministry was the United Kingdom’s coalition government for the Second World War from May 1940. Common sense calls out for consensus politics now.
We knew from climatologist’s research more than 30 years ago humankind was warming the planet through the burning of fossil fuels. They would all have to go – drilling stopped – investment ended – boilers binned – building’s insulation boosted – renewables rising. Our village is still struggling, after 10 years, to properly reduce its carbon footprint. As a nation we have clearly failed to co-operate and face up to this massive national, and international emergency
