A letter on the climate crisis by James Harvey, Broadland District Councillor for Plumstead Ward was published in the Eastern Daily Press on Wednesday 6 March 2024
Text below:
JOIN THE DOTS
On 04 March the EDP reported that County Council Leader Kay Mason Billig could see “no good reason” for Dr Andrew Boswell’s legal challenge to the A47 schemes. When are our politicians and media going to wake up and join the dots?
Norfolk is beset by flood waters drastically impacting many residents, for example in Hickling and Potter Heigham, where sewage has backed up onto roads and into people’s homes. Farmland is under water leading to ruined winter crops and lack of grazing land for livestock. Parts of the Broads aren’t navigable because rivers are too high for boats to get under bridges. We had the hottest year on record in 2023, and it’s likely to be even hotter this summer putting yet more pressure on farmers, water supplies, the NHS, and fire-fighters having to deal with wildfires. The list goes on and on, and that’s just in Norfolk, what about the ongoing droughts, famines, floods and fires killing thousands around the globe, or making it impossible to live and grow food, forcing mass migration?
CO2 levels in our atmosphere are at record levels and continuing to rise, and global average temperatures are mirroring this. We’ve soared past the 1.5°C threshold established in the Paris Agreement in 2015 as what we need to remain under to stay safe, with little or no reaction from the Government or media.
Yet we want to build more roads, expand Norwich airport, to create new oil and gas fields in the North Sea, all of which will increase carbon emissions leading to ever worsening conditions and more expensive consequences.
When are those in power going to join the dots and take the climate crisis seriously? We’re being seriously let down by the Tory run Norfolk County Council, and by Sunak’s woefully inadequate Government.
James Harvey, Salhouse, Norwich
Promoted by Jan Davis on behalf of Broadland Green Party, a constituent party of the Green Party of England & Wales PO Box 78066, London, SE16 9GQ