I'm 48 and a qualified doctor, most recently working in public health but now running a mindfulness-focussed community mental wellbeing project in Carlisle where I live. This has been an interesting year for me in terms of action on climate change as I stood for parliament for the Green Party. So the cycle ride will be a physical challenge but for the same cause. I have been an active member of Cycle Carlisle, our local cycle campaign, for many years.
I'm joining the group at the Scottish border and riding with the group from there to Paris. Its a hugely daunting trip for me as my usual cycling is just for daily journeys, usually only of two or three miles. But the issue of climate change and the implications of our governments not taking sufficient action to tackle it is so important that I really feel the need go to Paris and stand in solidarity with the people there from other countries whose lives and livelihoods are already being impacted by the climate change not of their making but of ours in the west.
Climate change is the greatest threat we have to global public health. Yet by acting to prevent it we could improve public health and living conditions for people here at home too. Encouraging a shift to sustainable transport would help to reduce obesity, insulating houses and a transition to renewables would reduce fuel poverty, consuming more local produce would boost local economies. All these would reduce pollution and its damaging effect on health and the environment. It really is a “no-brainer” yet corporate interests continue to win the day. I could not make those changes in the NHS, the organisation that should be leading on this. So I feel I have to do it through other methods, engaging in politics and by becoming part of a mass movement of ordinary people demanding change.
Cycling there in December, crazy as it is, feels like the strongest way that I can say to our governments “Please take the necessary actions to stop climate change getting any worse. We do have alternative options. I am choosing the most practical low carbon method of transport to travel there. Now you make it easy for us all to take the greenest decisions in every aspect of our lives. Take the actions that are the best for people and the planet, not those that are money-driven as all the decisions seem to have been to date.”
I was part of the civil society protests at the climate change summit in Copenhagen in 2009 and I really feel the progress that needed to be taken for us to become carbon neutral by 2050 has not been made. I cannot sit back and do nothing while our governments carry on with business as usual. Those of us who care need to make our voices heard.
I'm joining the group at the Scottish border and riding with the group from there to Paris. Its a hugely daunting trip for me as my usual cycling is just for daily journeys, usually only of two or three miles. But the issue of climate change and the implications of our governments not taking sufficient action to tackle it is so important that I really feel the need go to Paris and stand in solidarity with the people there from other countries whose lives and livelihoods are already being impacted by the climate change not of their making but of ours in the west.
Climate change is the greatest threat we have to global public health. Yet by acting to prevent it we could improve public health and living conditions for people here at home too. Encouraging a shift to sustainable transport would help to reduce obesity, insulating houses and a transition to renewables would reduce fuel poverty, consuming more local produce would boost local economies. All these would reduce pollution and its damaging effect on health and the environment. It really is a “no-brainer” yet corporate interests continue to win the day. I could not make those changes in the NHS, the organisation that should be leading on this. So I feel I have to do it through other methods, engaging in politics and by becoming part of a mass movement of ordinary people demanding change.
Cycling there in December, crazy as it is, feels like the strongest way that I can say to our governments “Please take the necessary actions to stop climate change getting any worse. We do have alternative options. I am choosing the most practical low carbon method of transport to travel there. Now you make it easy for us all to take the greenest decisions in every aspect of our lives. Take the actions that are the best for people and the planet, not those that are money-driven as all the decisions seem to have been to date.”
I was part of the civil society protests at the climate change summit in Copenhagen in 2009 and I really feel the progress that needed to be taken for us to become carbon neutral by 2050 has not been made. I cannot sit back and do nothing while our governments carry on with business as usual. Those of us who care need to make our voices heard.