The Climate of Change

[tomold1]

Would you help a friend in need?

I’ve just made some new friends and met some inspiring people in the Philippines who were also attending the Climate Reality training session (by Al Gore) in Manila. During the three-day course, we listened intensely, shared experiences, had meals together, exchanged jokes and even made a video. To be honest we probably had more in common than many of the American course facilitators from Climate Reality.

The experience turned the ‘Philippines’ from being a distant place we occasionally hear about in the news, into a country where I now have a connection and with that comes greater empathy. There are some obvious aesthetic differences, palm trees and Jeepney-taxi-buses, but these are relatively minor; it’s the people that make a place and the people I met share the same hopes, values and aspirations as me. I would love to say that they face the same threats too, but unfortunately this is where we differ.

The last time the Philippines was significantly featured in the news was in November 2013 when Typhoon Haiyan hit their shores - the most powerful storm to hit land anywhere in the world in the last 100 years. Over 6000 people died and almost 30,000 were injured. Nearly 1 million people were permanently or temporarily displaced.

The primary reason this storm was so powerful is man-made climate change. The seas in the Pacific, particularly on the equator are now warmer which is causing more evaporation and stronger winds. This is a lethal combination if you live in ‘typhoon alley’, as the 7000 strong islands of the Philippines do. Everybody I met has experienced the storms getting progressively worse in their lifetime - and unfortunately this trend is set to continue. The Philippines is now classified as the most at risk country in the world from climate change.

Now here is a contentious thought, 2,996 people died and the world was shaken when the tragic events of 9/11 unravelled, but only half the people died. True, the events represented an assault on the values of America, democracy a whole and had the excuse of religion as a justification, but the fact remains that far higher numbers of people died in Typhoon Haiyan.

The psychological compulsion to 9/11 was to appoint blame and then seek revenge. Iraq was on the receiving end and within 18 months we had invaded the oil producing country. I don’t know whether they really had anything to do with 9/11, but it’s commonly cited that they did not, and that the war was more about firming up oil supply and showing the public that decisive ‘revenge had been taken’.

Because the cause and effects for Typhoon Haiyan and climate change in general are less immediate and non-linear, they are easier to ignore, but that doesn’t make the human influence any less real. Humans, primarily through the burning of fossil fuels are causing extreme, record-breaking weather events like this to happen around the world. We are more detached from these events in the UK, but the multiple 100-year floods we experienced this winter were part of the same trend, costing our communities, businesses and governments billions of pounds. We have the ability to prevent this worrying trend towards  further destructive super storms. But, will we?

We don’t need to go to war in the traditional sense, but we do need to live, work and play in ways that are not pumping CO2 into the atmosphere. At COP21 (Paris) in December 2015 over 190 nations agreed that the world needs to move to ‘net zero’ emissions in the second half of the century (i.e. we’re putting as much CO2 into the atmosphere as we are taking out). Each country made voluntary pledges (INDC’s) with regards to how much they will reduce their nations CO2 emissions but until these plans are implemented they will remain empty promises.

If we want to seek revenge for all the climate-change related deaths that are occurring around the world on a daily basis, then we need to really and truly start a war on carbon. The imperative to change the way we live was clear to me before I arrived in the Philippines. Hearing how destructive Typhoon Haiyan was from new friends has served as a useful reminder as to WHY.

Closing thought. The morality of something is largely dictated by intentionality. The jihadi pilots in 9/11 had the worst possible intent, but given what we know today and the fact that we have the ability to mitigate climate change, at what point do we switch from being passive bystanders to wilful accomplices in the world’s biggest crime against humanity.

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[tomold1]

Paris Agreement – a moment in history or just hot air?

The agreement has gaps, compromises and shortfalls. Some of the key points are outside the legally binding section and even the legally binding section will be difficult to enforce in international law, but that’s not the point.

We should stop looking for loopholes and instead look at the symbolic nature of this agreement. The tide is changing and the agreed text between nearly 200 countries represents a change in how we choose to govern ourselves. It’s a step away from the short-term obsessive quest for GDP growth and quarterly earnings growth and starts to think about the true costs of how we live.

For decades scientists have been shouting in vain that if we carry on extracting, drilling, chopping and burning we risk a global ecosystem collapse, and now this view is finally being listened to. Last week we had 195 nations agree in a single legal document that our planet will not support our current way of life and that significant change is necessary.

Oil money still has huge influence, but it’s in decline and the common sense voice of civic society is starting to prevail. Last week the divestment movement reached a committed pledge of $3.4 Trillion dollars from over 500 different organisations out of fossil fuel stocks. The New York attorney general has also recently opened an investigation into whether ExxonMobil misled the public and investors about the dangers and potential business risks of climate change.

On Thursday UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon was given a 6.2 million strong petition from people around the world calling for a bold progressive agreement to be achieved and on Saturday - that agreement was delivered albeit not as progressive as it should have been, but never the less an agreement has been made.

While the agreement itself is important, we also need to recognise that a top-down approach isn’t going to achieve change by itself. It simply sets a direction. The physical change needs to come us, all 7.3 Billion of us.

So think of the agreement as a starting gun, for civil society, organisations and businesses, to take the ‘minimum’ pledge that the world’s governments have just agreed, deliver and hopefully better them.

I don’t think I’m over-hyping the agreement by saying it’s the very early beginning of a world where we will experience a different form of power.

[tomold1]

Breakfast with a worldview

After a week of long, intense days, I sat down for breakfast clutching a strong coffee. Slightly bleary eyed but excited about the day ahead. Opposite me was a young chap whom I later found out was from Namibia. Clearly feeling the cold, his first comment was “aren’t you freezing?” It turns out that this was the first time he’d left Namibia, as he’d flown to Paris to speak on behalf of a youth delegation of his home nation. He had saved up for two months to buy a jacket and a thick jumper, both of which he was now wearing.

Is the population of Namibia aware of climate change? I asked. Yes, very much so he responded, with a tone of ‘of course, why would you ask such a question’. So I asked him what the visible effects were. His slow response was poignant and actually added to the morning chill... “Because it just keeps getting drier. .  and drier . . and drier”,. . . “it hasn’t rained yet this season.”

Hearing this story and many others like it really brought home how we are isolated on our mild, wet island, and oblivious to the challenges that countries are facing around the world right now. As the UK is cumulatively one of the biggest polluters in the world, WE must all do our bit to adjust how we live and operate.

It’s not a coincidence that I have chosen to launch a social enterprise that can help people and business switch to renewable energy. It’s the quickest and simplest thing you can do to make a difference. Please get in touch with me to find out more.

[tomold1]

The Elephant in the Room – don’t mention climate change

Writing from Paris, where there’s a large community of people around the world taking climate change very seriously, I’m astonished how the media seems to be completely ignoring the obvious link between our warm winter weather, the floods in North West England and climate change.

Here’s the really basic science. Warmer air and warmer seas leads to more evaporation. More evaporation means bigger, less frequent but more intense periods of precipitation. Dry land and huge amounts of rain = flooding.

The environment agency asking for more money for dams isn’t fixing the issue and as the planet continues to warm at a faster and faster rate, the costs required to 'manage' the issue will simply be beyond us.

Lets open our eyes and acknowledge what’s happening to us TODAY and then demand the government take climate change seriously. It will pay dividends in the future.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/weather/11968966/Hottest-UK-November-weather-on-record-as-mercury-hits-22.4C-in-Wales.html

[tomold1]

They’ve got the name wrong.

Why is there all this fuss about 'Climate Change'?After all, we all like warm weather, and just a couple of degrees won’t make much difference. Wrong.

My first observation having seen numerous presentations by scientists, and met experts around the world is that the conference has the wrong name. Climate Change doesn’t accurately describe what the problem is nor the enormity of the problem.

The conference is about a lot more than carbon or temperature. These two measurements just happen to affect every ecosystem in the world and seeing as it is these ecosystems (our planet) that provide our food and raw materials for every aspect of our lives, it’s a pretty broad topic of conversation.

So think of it as a conference to discuss: the extinction of entire species, the destruction of forests, the melting  of glaciers and ice caps, the expansion of deserts, the acidification of the oceans, the pollution of the air, the increase in destructive super-storms, the bleaching of coral reefs, the vanishing of sunny beaches, the spread of disease, conflict over water scarcity, famine caused by crop failure, massive inequality between rich and poor, less food security, less supply of all the materials to make the stuff we ‘need’, and the flooding of all our coastal towns and cities. It is about how we live today and what our tomorrow will look like.

The conference is really about changing everything.  

[tomold1]

I’m not an environmentalist; I just care about our future

I’m sitting in a media café writing a few words about my experience in Paris to date and I thought I should touch on what motivated me to come out here and what motivated these other people too. It’s simple; we all care about the future of humanity and the planet and want to do something about it. It’s important to clarify though that the planet itself won’t die, just all the ecosystems that we depend upon for life.

The global climate movement is for all those people who enjoy healthy food, water, fresh air and the great outdoors.

‪#‎P2BCOP21‬ ‪#‎Climatecrisis‬ ‪#‎bthechange‬ ‪#‎RE100‬

[tomold1]

Why am I in Paris for the climate talks?

Over the next two weeks the COP21 climate talks are taking place in Paris, which I believe to be the most important set of meetings the world has ever seen. I have therefore come out to Paris to find a way of playing my part in this historic event.

I’m staying with an organisation called PlacetoB which is home to a mixture of journalists, artists, lobbyists, activist and social entrepreneurs. It’s a fascinating melting pot of interesting people with a common cause of wanting to prevent further climate change.

That's all great Tom, but what does Climate Change really mean and why should I really care? And how is you being in Paris really going to be useful? Over the coming weeks, I will attempt to answer these questions (at least in part) and hopefully report that COP21 is more than just hot air.

‪#‎climatecrisis‬ ‪#‎P2BCOP21‬ ‪#‎BillsThatGive‬ ‪#‎Ourfuture‬