Climate Emergency Meeting

FOLLOWING Oxford City Council voting unanimously to declare a Climate Emergency two weeks ago, Chinnor and Thame Friends of the Earth will be holding a Public Meeting on Climate Change with a film and a speaker, on Tuesday, March 19, at 7.30pm, at the Community Pavilion, off Station Road.

Oxford City Council joined over 200 other councils in the UK and overseas who have been compelled to begin the process of reducing their CO2 emissions to zero by 2030. This follows the latest warnings by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), that the people of the world only have 12 years left to prevent catastrophic, unstoppable Climate Change.

‘Critical time in our history’

The event in Chinnor will enable those attending to learn more about this critical time in our history, and how communities can all work together to make a difference.

Maureen Dyroff, of Chinnor and Thame FOE, explained: “Some startling tipping points have already happened, such as the warming of the permafrost layer in Siberia, releasing massive amounts of methane from under the ground. Methane is 28 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than CO2. Zero carbon emissions must be achieved by 2050, and we believe that technology can achieve this, if the people demand it.

‘We must all pay our part’

“There must be immediate drastic action by everybody at all levels, and that includes each one of us. We must all play our part, by demanding change and by personal action. This means driving less, using less energy, turning down the heating, switching to renewable energy, consuming less, where possible avoid flying, and working together as a community.

“It sounds impossible that this could be happening in our lifetime, let alone our children’s and grandchildren’s, but we finally have to face up to what is happening before it is too late.”

‘Positive things are happening’

Maureen continued: “All the extreme weather conditions that are now the norm, the melting of the polar ice, the rising sea levels, the warming of the oceans, are all happening now, and at a faster rate than previously predicted. There are many positive things already happening for example, Norway will become climate neutral by 2030. Hundreds of cities across the world are being powered mostly by renewable energy, coal mines are being shut down in India as solar power grows, Finland has banned the use of coal and in America, California sets a carbon free target by 2045.”