On Tuesday evening, the Plan-It Change Society at the University of Leicester and Leicester Green Party co-hosted an event called Climate change: the world is acting and so can Leicester. The main speaker was Natalie Bennett, ex-leader of the Green Party. She began by talking about the unseasonably nice weather we had been having and how it was indicative of climate change. She explained that before she got into politics, she came from a scientific background but said that she had discovered that very few politicians came from scientific backgrounds. This of course makes it difficult to work with them on climate change.
Natalie then gave us a report on the UN climate talks in December. She talked about the different groups who attended the talks and how this has developed with new groups being represented each year. Interestingly, she said the fashion industry were represented for the first time in 2018, which is important because they contribute emissions equivalent to the maritime and aviation industry combined.
Natalie said she would talk about the good, the bad and the ugly at the talks. The ‘ugly’ was the way that Poland promoted coal. Schools in Poland still have coal boilers and everyone left the talks with the ‘Katowice cough’ from the pollution. However, she did have an interesting anecdote. She saw a man shovelling coal into a school’s coal hole and took a photo. The man waved at her and without speaking any English indicated to her that he didn’t want his picture taken shovelling the coal. She deleted the picture but kept the picture of the coal heap and he was satisfied with that. Natalie thinks people are becoming ashamed of being associated with the coal and that things will change, even in Poland.
Natalie then moved onto the ‘bad’. The farming industry at the talks claimed that they didn’t need to change from using nitrogen-based fertilizers - they would just use less. But using any nitrogen fertiliser requires enormous energy input to make the fertiliser and they then evaporate and contribute to air pollution. We can’t just use it more efficiently; we have to move to organic.
Then came the ‘good’. Natalie said that now we understand the science better, we know that we all need to change and we know that we have to do this soon – within 12 years… She discussed how difficult it is to change society but then she said let’s think about what has changed in the last 12 years. For example, Twitter is only 12 years old and it is now central to political debate so it is possible to change very quickly.
Natalie then went on to talk about the shipping company, Maersk. At the talks they announced that they were going to be carbon neutral by 2050. This means that by 2030 they are going to be buying carbon neutral ships. But these ships don’t exist yet, so this Tmeans in 11 years they are going to design, build and commercially produce them! We may not know what the route of change is yet, but we will have to work it out!
She ended by talking about Greta Thunberg, the Swedish schoolgirl who has become the voice for the student climate strikers. Natalie said everyone can make a difference – Greta began at the age of 15 by sitting outside of her school saying politicians need to listen… We as adults need to celebrate and support the youth movement, encourage them and bring them on board.
Natalie then introduced two student climate strikers from Leicester. Joe said he heard about Greta and her protest but thought he couldn’t do anything himself. He thought there wasn’t enough time to organise anything but then realised his sister was talking to all of her friends trying to organise a protest and he thought he had better join in. At the first Leicester student climate strike, they got about 30 students to meet up at the Clock Tower. They have since had a meeting to talk about their group principles such as peaceful protest and they are now organising another event for March 15th.
His 13-year-old sister, Amy, then spoke. She talked about her dream for the future, which mainly was to make sure she had a future! She wants to say to politicians that you should care too and this message is their top priority. She ended by saying that adults should understand this isn’t ‘our’ responsibility as kids - this is ‘your’ responsibility as adults. She said our planet is dying and adults need to sort it out.