Warwick District Council should declare a Climate Emergency

Warwick District Council should declare a Climate Emergency

Started
8 May 2019
Signatures: 505Next Goal: 1,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Dominic Harrison

The climate science, summarised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is clear that we are living in a state of climate emergency. At 1° of warming, increased hurricanes, heatwaves, gales, floods, droughts, and wildfires are already killing thousands and unhoming millions around the world, damaging agricultural systems, ruining homes and infrastructure, and driving animal species to extinction. This kind of damage will only increase as our globe warms to a potentially disastrous 4° which we are said to be currently on track to reach, passing irreversible tipping points, whereby feedback mechanisms will push the warming process up even higher. These include the melting of the polar ice sheets, reducing the earth’s ability to reflect the sun’s rays; and the release, already underway, of massive deposits of methane—a greenhouse gas at least 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide—that are currently frozen under the permafrost. 

The result will be an earth largely beyond the limits of human survivability. We stand on a cliff edge, beyond which we could see the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world’, as David Attenborough said in a speech at the recent UN COP24 Summit. Should all the ice melt, and sea levels rise 50 metres, parts of Warwickshire could be underwater.

Hundreds of Warwick and Leamington schoolchildren have made clear their knowledge of the basic meaning of the climate science, and their horror at the future being prepared for them. We need those in positions of leadership to take the lead in treating the emergency as an emergency paying heed to the testimony of scientists. The UK Government have declared a Climate Emergency. An increasing number of UK councils—63 at time of writing—have declared a climate emergency, and committed to drastically cutting their greenhouse gas emissions, most often to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030. We need Warwick District Council to follow suit. 

The measures that will then be adopted will also significantly contribute to Air Quality improvements that are so desperately needed in Warwick and Leamington.

We, who live, work or study in the Warwick district, call upon the council to:

  • Declare a Climate Emergency.
  • Become a net-zero carbon organisation by 2025
  • Develop a strategy to convey to the community the severity of the situation, and to make known the ways in which local people can take action to cut greenhouse gas emissions in their own lives.
  • Develop, within 6 months, a realistic plan to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions within the district to zero by 2030, with substantial consultation with the local community, including schoolchildren.
  • To immediately take such actions that would obviously contribute to this goal, identified in consultation with the local community, without waiting for completion of the plan.
  • Lobby central government to provide the funding and the laws we need to achieve this.

A motion has already been submitted to the Warwick District Council and is due to be voted on at the Full Council meeting on June 26th 2019. We want it to be voted through and commit the Council to really significant action. Words are not enough. Let your Councillors know that this is a priority for you. You can read the current submitted motion by following the link below :

http://www.mediafire.com/file/lf1oj1y5j95w45a/ClimateEmergencyMotion_%2528002%2529.pdf/file

Printable copies of this petition can be downloaded from the following link :

http://www.mediafire.com/file/22dinpwaq19946j/Petition_Draft.pdf/file

Please email any enquiries on the Petition or Motion to 

eco.concerns.parents@gmail.com

 

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Signatures: 505Next Goal: 1,000
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