Time for change is now
In our July 10 edition, we reported on a meeting between Argyll campaigners and the region’s MP Brendan O’Hara to press for change in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The campaign group, known as Time for Change – Argyll and Bute, believes the time is now to put people, climate and nature at the heart of the UK’s recovery. In the second of our series of follow-up opinion pieces, we hear from Tayvallich resident Douglas Chirnside who has ‘been in or on the sea involved in fishing, farming and marine engineering’ all his life.
These are my views backed up by the best science currently available to me.
In the next couple of decades, I can see much more extreme weather events and mass displacement of people living on or around the equator; further huge losses to biodiversity and the extinction of key species; ongoing acidification of the world's oceans; civil unrest and the mental wellbeing of many people under threat; crop failures and shortages of everyday food commodities like grains and rice, and an increase in forest and peatland fires over much of the planet.
And no future for the nine billion people predicted to inhabit the world by 2021.
But when I start talking to people and politicians there is severe lack of knowledge on the climate crisis.
So I would ask the people of Argyll who are aware to relentlessly spread the word.
At home, checking the current level of insulation in your home is a great place to start. Also be aware of where your food comes from and consider whether it is seasonal. The list could go on and on, and a lot depends on your own personal finances. Lobbying politicians, of course, gets social media outlets to cover the story as well as making the politicians more aware.
Time for Change – Argyll and Bute would like people to be more aware of nature and the environment and how it’s all linked. I personally spend a lot of time focused on renewable energy and the fast-expanding electric car and charging infrastructure in Scotland and the rest of the UK.
I also think good news stories are essential to reassure young and older people who are informed and feel anxious and unsure of their future.
We must inform and connect business and political parties with the functional, real, live environmental business models already out there. We can champion these models and spread the word of their good work. The Triodos ethical banking group does a great job.
I have invested in an electric car and van for my business, fitted solar panels and home battery storage, insulated my home, source only seasonal foods, reduced my meat intake and help my partner in our vegetable garden. My business is in the marine sector and both my operating vessels are driven by electric drive trains. I don’t fly any more and my holidays are geared round my sailing boat. I bank with Triodos ethical banking group.
As for the next steps, for me it’s about finding and supporting solutions then championing them and spreading the word to any MP or member of the public who will listen.