SAVE THE PLANET FOR THE KIDS It’s time for us to take action against climate change, says Anna French
Let’s get fossil fuels out of our lives for good before it’s too late, says Anna French. Here, she reveals a few ways you can start to take action today
Thanks to the work of teenage Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, and thousands of children who have followed her example, the world has woken up to the climate emergency. The truth is that we’ve all been sleepwalking into a disaster that could still put the lives of future generations in jeopardy. There is still time to change things, but we have to move fast, and the first thing we have to change is ourselves. We’ve been accustomed to feeling that if we work hard and earn money, we can have or do whatever we want, that personal choice is sacrosanct and economic growth is the most important thing for the people of our country.
Well, it’s time to have a good, hard think about that, because the future for young people depends on the decisions we make today, tomorrow, and for the next 10 years. I’m not
suggesting we have to give up everything we enjoy, we just need to make some better choices and make sure that our lifestyle isn’t at the expense of our planet – and we need to do it now. It’s likely that you already know the bad news, but it’s worth repeating: based on the best evidence we have to date, the UN and climate scientists say that we have 11 years to cut our carbon emissions by 50% in order to have a chance of keeping climate change within 1.5 degrees. If we don’t achieve this, we risk the earth’s climate getting hotter due to less reflection from the rapidly disappearing
Arctic ice, and from methane being released from permafrost, where it is trapped. We’ve seen the floods, forest fires, hurricanes and droughts on the news, and these natural disasters are only going to get worse.
Our kids are now missing school to get our attention in the hope that we will help them out: on March 15th, the first School Strike 4 Climate took place, with 1.5m children (including mine) and their supporters taking part in over 100 countries. And while we wait for the world’s governments to step up, we are left with a feeling that perhaps it is time for us to take action, too. Here are the first steps you can take to say goodbye to the dirty fossil fuels in your life:
Move your money (divestment)
Move your current account, savings, investments and pensions into accounts that do not invest in fossil fuels, such as Co-operative Bank, Triodos Bank and Charity Bank.
Switch to 100% renewable energy
Change providers to one that provides energy from wind, solar and other non-fossil fuel sources, and buy 100% renewable gas. Friends of the Earth suggests Good Energy and Ecotricity.
Switch to electric
Change your vehicles and other transport to electric rather than petrol or diesel. The current Government target for stopping production of petrol and diesel cars is 2040, but this is too slow. I’m personally planning to action the aforementioned by 2030 or sooner. You could also switch your gas cooker and gas boiler to electric.
Cut down on flying
Each time you exceed your carbon footprint on a long-haul flight, you’re damaging the chances of a secure future for our children. Look up Flight Free UK’S campaign, which is working hard to get 100,000 people to agree to not fly in 2020. To work out your carbon footprint, go to footprint.wwf.org.uk.
Buy less stuff
Clothes, shoes, bags… everything has a fossil fuel footprint, and the earth just can’t sustain it. Buy quality and, in turn, you’ll buy less.
Make your voice heard
Join Extinction Rebellion (rebellion.earth), Parents for Future (parentsforfuture.org) or one of the many other activist groups. Write to your MP: just because the Government has declared a climate emergency doesn’t mean everything’s fine; they still have to take action and, chances are, they won’t act fast enough, so we need to be on their backs until this is sorted. We have all the answers and technology needed to do this, it’s just the will that is lacking, so let’s show the Government that we are resolved to change this, and give them the motivation to take action.
If you’re a business owner, take charge
From your business account and your pension scheme to your landlord’s energy supply and your travel providers, only use businesses that don’t invest in fossil fuels.
There are lots of positive changes happening out there to help with climate change, but they aren’t happening fast enough. It’s time to pull together to do everything we can to change the fate of future generations. Because then, when you sit down with the young people in your life and they ask, ‘What did you do when you knew we only had 11 years left?’ you can honestly say, ‘I did everything I could.’