Climate Change

The Climate Crisis

We've all witnessed wilder and more extreme weather events at home and abroad with the UK recording its hottest ever July day at 38.1°C in 2019. The Met Office confirms that the UK’s 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 2002 while our 10 coldest all date before 1963. And we already experience 13% more summer rain compared to last century.

What’s more it will continue to get warmer and wetter.

Why is this?

Man-made emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are to blame. Produced by the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas), and made worse by the destruction of carbon-absorbing forests and methane from intensive dairy farming, they lodge in the atmosphere forming a greenhouse-like heat-trap.

This greenhouse effect has caused a 1°C rise in average surface temperatures since pre- industrial times. The world’s leading climate scientists have published the IPCC report, warning that we have until 2030 to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C this century - but this target is dependent on key decisions being taken before the end of 2020. Pressure groups, like Extinction Rebellion, go further - they say greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to net zero by 2025.

Even if urgent action is taken over the next decade, the sad fact is greenhouse gases will still be affecting the climate many millenia from now. But if the world fails to respond to these warnings, then the consequences will be even darker with more floods, storms, heat waves and droughts.

Their impact will devastate global food production, cause sea flooding of low-lying countries driven by melting ice sheets and force the mass displacement of populations through drought and famine. More plant and animal extinctions will occur as habitats change faster than species can adapt.

While all this may seem overwhelmingly apocalyptic there are small signs of hope. More than 150 countries - including the UK - have ratified the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement to keep the global temperature rise this century to well below 2°C while pursuing efforts to limit this to 1.5°C.

The UK government has also joined 18 other nations in the Carbon Neutrality Coalition to meet the long-term objectives of the Paris Agreement as early as possible and no later than 2020.

At least that’s a start.

People power

And then there’s us, the people. Whether it's the worldwide movement of school strikes inspired by Greta Thunberg or the headline-grabbing actions of Extinction Rebellion, people worldwide are demanding significant action on the climate crisis, and governments and corporations are having to respond.

Cerney Climate Action was inspired by this people movement. It’s our intention to do what we can locally to reduce our community’s carbon footprint and so push our local and national politicians to take decisions on climate change that will really make a difference.

As individuals, facing up to climate change for the sake of a better and more sustainable world may seem a daunting prospect. But by joining together, and becoming part of a growing international movement of other like-minded and motivated people, we can make an impact.