The House of Commons has tonight declared an “environment and climate emergency.” The first national parliament in the world to do so.
This comes in the wake of mass civil action by Extinction Rebellion, school strikes for climate, and local declarations of climate emergency all over the world.
The UK Labour Party, which proposed the motion, asked MPs to “act with commensurate urgency.” Something which the Green Party have been urging for a very long time.
In the last few days, the Scottish government and the Welsh government have also declared climate emergency. All late to the party, but very welcome.
MPs today fell over each other today to express their ecological concerns. There was unanimous agreement to pass the motion.
A…
Brexit staggers forward like a whiskey laced fever, and nobody at the school gate says its name.
The mums are stockpiling cans of beans. Not because of apocalypse. But because they expect the price of food to increase. They’re a practical lot.
One friend had no money this week. Off to the food-bank. Straining to make polite conversation while trying, and failing, to hold back tears after pick-up.
Over 30,000 food parcels were given in Northern Ireland last year. Is it a nationalist food bank or a unionist food bank? Asks nobody, ever.
The place where I live, which I…
On 27th February 2019, an eerily summery winter evening, Ards and North Down Borough Council passed Northern Ireland’s first Climate Emergency motion. Led by Green Party councillors Rachel Woods and Barry McKee, the motion was agreed without changes in a full meeting of the Council chamber.
This comes not a moment too soon for a region which is set to face major challenges over the next 10–20 years as temperatures, and sea-levels, rise. Parts of the Ards peninsula, along with much of the inner parts of Belfast, are likely to be underwater in our lifetimes. And perhaps a lot sooner than we expect.
A ground-breaking IPCC report in October 2018, amalgamating all the recent scientific research, found that on our current path, global temperatures will rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2040. …
Claire Mitchell
Writer & researcher. Based in Belfast. Write about Ireland, politics, identity, climate. @mrstooth
