Buckinghamshire Federation of Women's Institutes
  • Home
  • What we do
    • Board and Committees
      • Federation Trustees
    • Speaking out
      • Resolutions
      • Campaigns
        • Get On Board
        • Stop Modern Slavery
        • Make a Match
        • 5 Minutes that matter
    • Denman
    • The Members' Blog
  • What's On
    • Events Calendar
    • Competitions & Challenges
      • 100 Miles More
      • Huxley Cup
      • Elizabeth Bell Challenge 2021
      • 101 words
      • Silver Cup
      • Virtual Show
    • Centenary+1 Celebrations
  • Join Us
    • About Bucks WIs
    • Find a WI (Map)
      • Morning WIs
      • Afternoon WIs
      • Evening WIs
    • Find a WI (A-Z)
  • On-line Store
  • Contact Us
  • Gallery
  • Your WI
    • Tutorials & Library
    • Running your WI
    • Finding a Speaker
    • Volunteering with BFWI
  • History of Buckinghamshire WIs
  • Use of Website
  • Covid advice
  • Home
  • What we do
    • Board and Committees
      • Federation Trustees
    • Speaking out
      • Resolutions
      • Campaigns
        • Get On Board
        • Stop Modern Slavery
        • Make a Match
        • 5 Minutes that matter
    • Denman
    • The Members' Blog
  • What's On
    • Events Calendar
    • Competitions & Challenges
      • 100 Miles More
      • Huxley Cup
      • Elizabeth Bell Challenge 2021
      • 101 words
      • Silver Cup
      • Virtual Show
    • Centenary+1 Celebrations
  • Join Us
    • About Bucks WIs
    • Find a WI (Map)
      • Morning WIs
      • Afternoon WIs
      • Evening WIs
    • Find a WI (A-Z)
  • On-line Store
  • Contact Us
  • Gallery
  • Your WI
    • Tutorials & Library
    • Running your WI
    • Finding a Speaker
    • Volunteering with BFWI
  • History of Buckinghamshire WIs
  • Use of Website
  • Covid advice


The Members' Blog

Authorship
Until January 2020, this Blog was the voice of an individual WI member.  Over her 40 years of membership, our Blogger had made a very fine contribution to this and other Federations in England.  With interests in crafts, reading and writing and in travel, she also took an active part in campaigning for women's welfare and education and on environmental issues.  While she has now handed over the Blog to the wider Bucks membership, her archived blog posts are a testament to someone who always made the utmost of her membership, and a rich source of information about the part the WI can play in today's society. 

Climate Change - Why should we be concerned?

17/3/2020

0 Comments

 
A guest blogger introduced by our Climate Ambassador team:

Why
?  Because it affects every aspect of this world we live in. According to science it is making the world a place that suffers more extreme weather events, this means more storms, bigger storms, in more places and greater droughts with associated risks of wildfires in more places. It is going to affect a lot of those things we don’t necessarily associate with climate change. People talk about reducing our carbon footprints, governments talk about carbon offsetting.
Why all this talk about reducing carbon, surely carbon is essential for life? Carbon is one of the building blocks for life, we contain it, trees contain it, plants and animals contain it, fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) contain a lot of it. When it is burnt it releases CO₂ into our atmosphere which stays there for a long time like a blanket, causing a greenhouse warming effect. Other gases such as methane are also greenhouse gases, the release of all these greenhouse gases have increased the temperature of our planet and have led to climate change.
Climate change is going to impact every person on this planet and with 9 billion people on this planet by 2050 all competing for resources we need a better plan to distribute them and a different way of using resources that we all depend upon.
So what will happen in our area? Temperatures in the UK have risen by about 1° since the 1970s, further warming is inevitable over the next 30 years, the amount of warming depends on future global emissions. Weather patterns are changing, extremely wet winters 5x more likely with more intense downpours. So surface water flooding, and sewage contamination of watercourses is more likely. Critical infrastructure such as electricity systems and transport could be threatened.
Warmer drier summers are more likely (great you may say) but there will be some extremely hot days, this can affect transport (rails buckling, tarmac melting) and computers overheating (NHS runs on computers).
Our water supply will be at risk, The Greater London Authority have stated that London is close to its capacity and predicts supply problems by 2025 and serious water shortages by 2040. Thames Water almost called a drought last year and funded home visits to encourage consumers how to use less water. With all the new homes planned and being built this situation is only going to get worse.
There is likely to be food price volatility as crop patterns change globally (the worlds wheat supply was severely affected by drought over the past few years, with crops failing across Canada and America, in 2020 in the UK the rains have already killed off many acres of cereal seedlings.)
Environmental refugees will need to move from uninhabitable areas of the world, all nations will need to incorporate them. Refugees will be forced to move if increased temperatures prevent any food being grown, and competition over natural resources such as water and food lead to conflict or they may be driven by sea level rises or increased natural disasters. Scientists at Cornell University and the United Nations state that “If catastrophic climate events and conflict are taken into account alongside starvation and lack of clean drinking water - nearly 2 billion people will become refugees or internally displaced persons by 2100”, most people will try and rehouse themselves within their country, but unless richer nations continue to lend support to stricken countries and help them mitigate against severe climate heating then more people will want/need to relocate.
Air pollution and the climate crisis are linked, as the air pollutants that are released by the burning of fossil fuels are responsible for 30 – 40% of global warming. Then there are the wildfires to factor in.  While we have yet to face anything like the challenges felt by Australia or California, the UK has serious air pollution problems which are contributing to and exacerbated by climate change. The UK Health Alliance stated in 2019 that air pollution is the second biggest public health threat after smoking and is linked to 40,000 deaths in the UK every year and 86% of our cities exceed recommended limits for particulate matter. We know that air pollution is very bad for our health generally and is linked to cancer, asthma, diabetes, obesity and dementia. Marlow and High Wycombe - Wycombe District Council have documented as exceeding recommended limits for example.
People can feel powerless to make a difference, how can one person effect a positive change when you look at the impact of building a coal fired power station in China, people ask does it make a difference if you take a bus or train as opposed to driving or flying, they are concerned these solitary actions are too small. But all these small actions do add up and do make a difference and we’ve seen changes in Europe in the last number of years, partly because of laws but partly because of greater awareness. We’ve seen emissions in countries reduce (maybe not as much as we would like, but they have still reduced) as well as people in those countries enjoying good lifestyles.
It is possible to do it and it does make a difference. The UN has stated the world needs to reduce its carbon footprint by 7.5% every year, maybe we could all pledge to do this on a personal level - what would it take – we need to have that discussion.
Mitigation
To mitigate against extreme downpours and drought houses can have grey water collection schemes and rain water collection. Plots should have gravel soakaways for rain water into the garden rather than hard standing with down pipes connecting into drains.
Our homes will need to be adapted to insulate us from extremes of heat, with extra insulation and ventilation, not just our homes, our offices, hospitals etc…
The motor car running on diesel or petrol is one of the biggest air polluters. If people need to commute, then try to car share, or use public transport. Pavements and cycle routes need to be separate from main roads. If you do drive then use your trip wisely – try and get several tasks accomplished with a trip, don’t idle your engine – switch it off if you are stationary for more than 1.5 minutes.
Electric cars are not the complete answer as air pollution also comes from tyres and there is concern over the batteries that are used. Hydrogen cars are effective, but it is tricky to make hydrogen, the process is wasteful of energy and at the moment it is usually made by gas engines.
Libby James
Climate Action Now Group, Princes Risborough

0 Comments

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013

    Categories

    All
    ACWW
    Annual Meeting
    Body Image
    Book Group
    Bucks County Show
    Care Not Custody
    Centenary
    Christmas
    COOL
    Denman
    Digital Team Leader
    Discussion Group
    Existentialist Angst
    FGM
    Food Matters
    Great Food Debate
    Happy Stitchers
    History Day
    Homelessness
    Investigation And Discovery
    Jammin' With The WI
    Literary Lunch
    Loneliness
    Love Your Libraries
    Membership
    Mental Health Matters
    Modern Slavery
    Organ Donation
    Plastic Soup
    Quiz
    Resolutions
    Science
    Shop
    SOS For High Streets
    Stuart Lodge
    Support Overdue
    Violence Against Women
    WI Campaigns
    WI Constitution
    WI Crafts
    WI Life
    Women's History
    Women's Suffrage

    RSS Feed

​Charity No: 228057 ​
WI ADVISER
MY WI
NFWI
WI TRAINING
MCS2
​External links disclaimer
Throughout our site you will find links to external websites. Although we make every effort to ensure these links are accurate, up to date and relevant, BFWI cannot take responsibility for pages maintained by external providers.  If you come across any external links that don't work, we would be grateful if you could report them to us.
Photo used under Creative Commons from rverc
  • Home
  • What we do
    • Board and Committees
      • Federation Trustees
    • Speaking out
      • Resolutions
      • Campaigns
        • Get On Board
        • Stop Modern Slavery
        • Make a Match
        • 5 Minutes that matter
    • Denman
    • The Members' Blog
  • What's On
    • Events Calendar
    • Competitions & Challenges
      • 100 Miles More
      • Huxley Cup
      • Elizabeth Bell Challenge 2021
      • 101 words
      • Silver Cup
      • Virtual Show
    • Centenary+1 Celebrations
  • Join Us
    • About Bucks WIs
    • Find a WI (Map)
      • Morning WIs
      • Afternoon WIs
      • Evening WIs
    • Find a WI (A-Z)
  • On-line Store
  • Contact Us
  • Gallery
  • Your WI
    • Tutorials & Library
    • Running your WI
    • Finding a Speaker
    • Volunteering with BFWI
  • History of Buckinghamshire WIs
  • Use of Website
  • Covid advice