Tower and Town, September 2021

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Climate Change: Getting The Message Across

This is a fantastic opportunity to hear a discussion about the defining issue of our time from two people who care passionately about the future of our planet.

Jonathan Porritt, co-founder of Forum of the Future, campaigner, author, broadcaster and commentator on sustainable development, has been involved for many years at a high level with many NGOs and charities, including being director of Friends of the Earth, chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission and president of Population Matters.

He tells the truth and nothing but. He is incredibly well informed, articulate and always engaging. His latest book Hope in Hell; A Decade to Confront the Climate Emergency describes the greatest problem ever faced by humankind in straightforward terms, spelling out reasons for despair but most importantly, for hope and the imperative need to act.

Alongside seemingly intractable problems, he describes escape routes possible through political action, well directed finance, investment in female education and rights, including vital access to family planning, science and technology. He sees the biggest challenge as the fundamental political and economic transformation to break from the current neo-liberal economic model, at the heart of which lies the fossil fuel industry and the interests of powerful elites, which is accelerating climate and ecological collapse.

Jessie Greengrass brings her message about climate change to her second novel The High House. She tackles the subject of global heating together with a future vision of a flooded East Anglia. Young siblings, Caro and Pauly find themselves in a seaside home with villagers Sally and Grandy. The house has been adapted by Caro and Pauly’s mother, who is a high flying climate scientist and campaigner, to enable survival in the most extreme climatic conditions.

Despite the bleak message, there is a time of joy and fulfilment as well as a sense of inevitability. Have we left it too late?

Jo says that with her criminal record resulting from her non-violent direct actions with Extinction Rebellion (XR), she welcomed Porritt writing how the ‘Fridays for the Future’ global school strikes and XR have changed the rules in a permanent and significant way. Both place great emphasis on science and despite controversy have helped raise the alarm.

Jo Ripley and Virginia Reekie