A National Emergency Briefing on climate change says ‘return to the science’.
The meeting, held at Westminster Hall, was organised by National Emergency Briefing, an expert group in the field backed by organisations including the National Trust, the Royal Meteorological Society and the National Education Union.
In his opening address broadcaster and naturalist Chris Packham asked the meeting: “why are we unbelievably pulling back on rapidly and forthrightly addressing the greatest crisis to ever threaten our species, climate breakdown and biodiversity loss?…Climate denialism has been a mainstreamed again, thanks to the well-oiled machines of the rich, powerful and influential fossil fuel and other industries. A dangerous wave of misinformation and lies fill our lives, but worse, it fills the lives of our decision makers and these are the people who shape policy”.
Packham called on politicians to stand up to fossil fuel lobbyists who remained significant contributors to some political parties’ coffers. He urged that we listen to the science adding: “if you don’t things go wrong and lives are lost”.
Zack Polanski, Green Party leader, said the severity of the information presented was clear. He said: “this is an emergency and needs to be treated as such,” adding that it was important to keep challenging vested interests which had spread misinformation for decades. You can view the briefing on why we should return to the science here.