Climate Change

The effects of climate change are already with us. Our oceans are warming, ice caps and glaciers are melting and weather systems are becoming more extreme. This is disrupting food-chains, causing sea levels to rise and making rainfall patterns harder to predict.

Climate change poses huge challenges for the whole world and we can all do something to help.

The most effective actions to take will vary from country to country and region to region.

Global Solutions


“Drawdown” The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by Paul Hawken, is a beautifully illustrated book that lays out the 100 most effective ways that people can choose to lower greenhouse gas emissions and to drawdown CO2 from the atmosphere into organic matter. Each solution has a Net Cost and also has a figure for its Lifetime Savings.  (https://www.drawdown.org/solution,)

UK Solutions

How to get on Track to net zero by 2050 (aiming for max 2 degrees of warming)

  • Make all new car and van sales electric or plug-in hybrid by 2030
  • Upgrade all homes to meet EPC C levels of efficiency by 2035
  • Adopt ‘best practice’ resource efficiency in industry
  • Return to 1970s levels of tree planting, restore salt marshes, wetlands and peat and pay farmers for drawing down carbon into the soil

Net zero by 2045 (aiming for 1.5 degrees of warming)
Do all of the above and double the pace of emissions reductions by

  • Early retirement of fossil fuelled power
  • Early retirement of heating and transport infrastructure
  • Changing diets towards low carbon options

https://www.green-alliance.org.uk/how_the_UK_can_stop_contributing_to_climate_change.php

MK Solutions

  • Support the new Sustainability Strategy 2019 – 2050 adopted by MK Council Cabinet in January 2019
  • Press MK council to adopt ever more ambitious targets which detail the actions it can take to achieve the title of “Greenest City in the World” in 2050
  • Comment on MK council sustainability policies and suggest additional actions
  • Write to and visit the Milton Keynes members of parliament to show that more and more people care about climate change 

Individual Solutions

  • Switch your electricity supply to be 100% renewable
  • Cut fossil fuelled transport mileage by 10% each year*
  • Lower your thermostat by 1 degree
  • Switch off your shower while soaping and shampooing
  • Move to a vegan or climatarian diet**
  • Plant 2 trees and a metre of hedge each year
  • Buy 10% fewer items each year
  • Invest savings in renewable energy companies
  • Join the Soil Association or similar
  • Support charities that educate girls
  • Don’t burn things
  • Help all children worldwide to have their own solar lamp
  • Use peat free compost
  • Buy organic food and garden organically

http://www.carbonconversations.co.uk/
*Cutting transport mileage: Include your petrol/diesel car mileage, train and bus journeys unless renewably electric, miles in a plane or on a cruise ship. Ways to cut down: walk, cycle including by an electric bike if charged from  renewables, car sharing

** A climatarian diet (http://www.zerocarbonbritain.org/en/)
Protein

  • One large portion of red meat per week (a steak, pork or lamb chop, a portion of liver or a chicken fillet)
  • Two further smaller portions of pig or chicken per week (for example two rashers of bacon or a few slices of chicken)
  • A fillet of fish
  • One portion of meat alternatives such as tofu or quorn
  • Four portions of pulses (lentils, chickpeas, baked beans)
  • Two eggs
  • Enough milk to cover breakfast cereals and teas and coffees (additional milk coming from plant milks eg soya, oat or almond milks
  • A small portion of cheese and yoghurt

Carbohydrates

  • Cereals, pasta, bread, rice, potatoes
  • 4 portions of vegetables and 3 portions of fruit per day
  • Vegetable oil

Reinventing retrofit

How to scale up home energy efficiency in the UK. 
https://www.green-alliance.org.uk/resources/reinventing_retrofit.php