We are rather impressed with the email (see below) a MCFly reader sent to his councillors asking them to attend a council meeting to hear climate scientist Kevin Anderson speak. Why not send your councillor the same and ask them to sign the pledge to ‘do more on climate change’? You can find out who your councillors are here.
Dear Councillors Razaq, Stogia and Watson,
Next Wednesday 30th January at 10 am Professor Kevin Anderson from the
University of Manchester will talk to the full Council about climate change
in the Great Hall. I know you’re very busy but I hope you can be there,
and that if you have any questions for him, you ask them. He’s genuinely a
world expert and the Tyndall Centre http://www.tyndall.ac.uk he’s part of is one
reason we can be proud of Manchester as a “knowledge capital”.
Climate change is an issue we may all regret not having taken more action
on. It’s affecting vulnerable people here and now in Manchester through
food and energy prices. We’re also likely to see more “environmental”
migrants displaced by conflict fed by long-term drought and other climate
change. It’s not just about what may happen to people far away and in the
future. The good news is there has already been action to make Manchester
more resilient: independent moves like Steady State Manchester and the Council has made some good plans as well.
Those plans need a bit of a “push” to make them into reality.
I hope to get along to one of your surgeries soon to talk with you about
this. There are some basic things our elected representatives can do on the
issue:
1. learn more about climate change and its impacts on Manchester and the
wider world;
2. take a greater role in turning the Manchester Climate Change Action
Plan (2009) into reality;
3. raise the issue in Scrutiny Committees to look at Manchester’s
response and vulnerabilities, especially as they affect the poorest and
most vulnerable;
4. investigate what can be done at ward level to ensure that the most
vulnerable people and habitats are protected against the impacts of climate
change, and to make the findings public.
Manchester’s domination by Labour only looks like increasing at the next
election. I know some view this with anxiety as it could mean our elected
representatives feel complacent. I don’t see it like that. I see it as an
opportunity to take some radical steps to tackle climate change as far as
that is possible locally. Climate change is also a chance to get some real cross party consensus and progress. There is a host of issues crying out for action based on a longer view: transport, housing, waste, power (GM Fair Energy is good first step) etc.
No one has all the answers. It’s something we’re
going to have to work out as we go along. That’s why it’s important to
start locally, finding practical approaches. It takes some bravery from
politicians/leaders to acknowledge they don’t have all the answers and that
it is probable that standards of living, as currently defined, are likely
to decline. Labour’s domination of Manchester takes away some of the
short-termism of most political balances of power and leaves the way open
for politicians to actually lead, setting out why the City should take
radical steps. It’s a chance to recapture some of Manchester’s forward
thinking leadership in the nineteenth century that brought so many
improvements locally and then nationally.
In the meantime Kevin Anderson himself may not have all the answers but he
knows most of the questions to ask and can help us assemble the facts on
which to make some good decisions. I look forward to seeing you on
Wednesday.
All the best,
[MCFly reader]
manchester climate monthly 