MORE than 150 people from across Bromsgrove and Redditch turned out to watch a powerful film about the climate and nature emergency facing the whole of the UK.
The screening of The People’s Emergency Briefing was organised by Bromsgrove Climate Action and took place at Parkside on Tuesday evening.
Among those watching were residents, campaigners, councillors and climate change experts.
The evening was hosted by Kate Vad Der Plank, a former district councillor and parish councillor, and the guest speaker on the evening was Elena Langthorn, the chair of the University of Worcester’s sustainability forum.
The People’s Emergency Briefing started out with scientists delivering authoritative briefings on climate and nature breakdown to more than 1,200 politicians in Westminster.
For the 51-minute film, those speeches were then compiled to convey the complex climate and ecological science in an accessible, easy-to-understand way. These were interspersed – in a Gogglebox-style format – with reactions from people, including Jennifer Saunders, Deborah Meaden and others.
The film was hosted and led by naturalist, TV presenter and environment campaigner Chris Packham OBE.
Step-by-step, it looked at a ‘cascade of crises’ affecting all aspects of our everyday lives, including weather extremes, climate, the ‘tipping point’. food security, health, national security, nature, economics and energy transition.
It laid out the facts simply, along with some myth-busting ‘home truths’ about what the future could look like if important ‘emergency’ action – along the lines of a response similar to that of the Second World War – was not taken.
It also outlined what could happen if positive action was taken to address the climate emergency.
After the screening in Bromsgrove on Tuesday, those gathered took part in short discussions about the issues raised in the film.
These included the importance of teachers, schools and educators getting the message across, bike buses for schoolchildren, cutting vehicle usage and more compulsory green additions to new homes, such as solar panels.
People, community groups and organisations are being urged to organise their own screenings of The People’s Emergency and post-film discussions and lobby their MPs to get the film a ‘prime time’ showing on British television.
Afterwards, Coun Van Der Plank said: “It was a tough watch but there was also a lot of positives and some good discussions afterwards.
“I would urge people to organise their own screenings so we can spread the word about what is happening here in the UK and what can be done to address it.”
Ros Cooke, one of the co-chairs of Bromsgrove Climate Action, said: “It was a fantastic turn-out and a lot of people had their say on what had affected them and what they think should be done.
“Future action is being planned, along with more screenings.”
Visit nebriefing.org/peb for more on the People’s Emergency Briefing and how to organise group screenings and discussions.
Visit the ‘Bromsgrove Climate Action’ Facebook page for more on what is going on locally.
The Standard says….
Our journalist Tristan Harris watched the film in Bromsgrove on Tuesday and here are his thoughts.
The viewing of the People’s Emergency Briefing made for an eye-opening watch.
Most of us know there is climate emergency and understand something needs to be done to improve the situation.
But often, unless you go out of your way to research it or make a point of talking to others about these issues, they are not prevalently mentioned in everyday life.
We may see the odd report on the news or read in the papers about ever-increasing natural disasters, such as wildfires and floods, but that is usually once-a-week.
Maybe on documentaries, such as those by Sir David Attenborough, we may also be made aware of the situation but we often just think about it for a few minutes and then move on with our day.
And, as Chris Packham said in the film, we have a tendency to not like thinking about these kinds of issues and ‘burying our heads in the sand’.
That coupled with everyone working so hard just to pay the bills and having so much going on in their daily lives has created a perfect storm whereby – even if we do want to do something about this very serious situation – it gets put to one side with a procrastinating ‘we’ll do something tomorrow’.
This film is not about what is happening in other continents and far away places that have no connection or bearing on Britain but what is occurring right here, right now in the UK.
The starkest revelation was that the action needed to avoid certain disaster ‘must be the equivalent of the nation’s whole response to the Second World War’.
We must all pull together to improve the situation – depending less on fossil fuels, using more renewable energy and do all we can to ensure the planet does not rise by the two degrees celsius that could potentially make the UK uninhabitable, lethally threatened or uninsurable by 2060. That is just 34 years away if nothing is done.
The way the different aspects affected our lives – weather extremes, climate, the ‘tipping point’. food security, health, national security, nature, economics and energy transition – was brilliantly done. It gave you all you needed to know in one place – a proverbial one-stop shop for what is happening to the planet and what needs to be done.
Startling facts included that floods in the UK which meant farmers’ crops could not be grown that year used to happen only once every 16 years. Not they happen once every five. And with food crises and shortages, there is the potential for civil unrest as people fight to feed themselves and scramble to survive.
Some interesting myth-busting was done too – one which particularly struck me was about China. I had always thought the country was a massive threat to the world because of climate change and its large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. And while their emissions are high compared to other countries, China’s implementation of renewable and clean energy to address the crisis is the equivalent of the rest of the world combined. It already has 50 per cent of its total energy provided by renewable green energy and 50 per cent of its vehicles are EVs. It also hopes to reach Net Zero (carbon neutrality) before 2060.
Another good point made is those promoting fossil fuels, rubbishing climate change and the need for carbon neutrality are those who have the most to lose – often financially. Those leaders who are making the most money from fossil fuels and oil are the ones who do not want its use being reduced or brought to an end. Which, if you stop and think about it, it makes sense.
In reality, not everyone is going to stop driving petrol and diesel cars, use public transport or cycle to work or school, particularly if it makes journeys massively longer and, consequently, their life harder. People need to be given the facts and make their own minds up about what they can and need to do to make things better.
And then – and only then – maybe we can reverse the climate emergency and give ourselves and our children a future.
I would urge everyone to watch the People’s Emergency Briefing and echo the calls for more public screenings to be organised where people can see what we are faced with and hold debates and discussions about where we go from here. Whether in colleges, community groups, churches, social groups, organisations, businesses – no matter how busy our lives, we all need to make time to watch this and then reassess what we are doing, where we are going and what we can do differently as a collective.
Visit nebriefing.org/peb for more on the People’s Emergency Briefing and how to organise group screenings and discussions.
