Big Green Climate Week Event is coming

Local councils are pushing this years awareness activities in your area and encourage people to get involved.

The Great Big Green Week campaign aims to draw attention to climate change, destruction of the natural world, while also making a connection with these issues and actions locally in Watford and Three Rivers.

Britain has made big promises about reducing our impact on the planet, but getting there means huge changes to our everyday lives.  A girl died from the air she breathed in London.

Events 18-26 September will be range from walks to movies, litter picks to food demonstration events, with focus on  community and climate for all ages. 

And on Friday 24th September, Team HSO will be joining Friends of The Earth Watford and Three Rivers at Random Cafe in to take part in a Climate Conversation. Meriden Gardens, 24a Garsmouth Way, Watford, WD25 9DR .

This is an important and big opportunity to raise the ambition of plans to tackle climate change crisis at home and abroad.

Eextreme weather domes are happening around the globe as thermal curretns going the wrong way collide and halt.

According to meteorologists, a “low-pressure vortex circling over Europe” that is “hemmed in by other weather fronts” is the reason for the terrible floods in Germany, The Telegraph reports. 

Floods

Hurricane Ida, US: More than one million homes and businesses have been left without power in the southern US states of Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Ida made landfall on 29 August, the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. 

Flooding in west Germany destroyed homes and bridges along the River Ahr in July.

Severe Floods in China: More than 30 people died and 200,000 evacuations in China’s Henan province. Twelve people lost their lives in a Zhengzhou metro train, with survivors describing how torrents of murky brown water gushed past the train window, flowing fast through the subway tunnel. Inside, passengers stood on top of seats, clutching their phones overhead until it became difficult to breathe.

Storm Christoph, “one of the wettest three-day periods on record” for North Wales and North-West England, according to the Met Office.

Cyclone Seroja: Landslides and flash floods displaced at least 22,000 people in Indonesia.

Cyclone Ana: caused more than 10,000 people to take refuge in 318 evacuation centres across Fiji

Texas -13℃ power cut: 3.5 million businesses and homes were left without power, total death toll rose from 151 to 210 in July.

New York Subway floods, also hit New Jersey and Connecticut, and bathers were warned off Long Island beaches due to “elevated bacteria levels during heavy rainfall”

Wildfires

In 2021 wildfires increased on multiple continents due to increased extreme weather caused by climate change. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has apologised for the blazes, adding that more than 580 fires have broken out.

Spain wildfire:  almost 1,000 emergency workers fighting blaze in Andalucía region rages for sixth day. Forcing the evacuation of more than 2,600 people.

Europe: 12 people have died in Greece, Turkey and Italy as a result of huge wildfires that have “ravaged” large regions of southern Europe, The Guardian reports.

Austraila and USA had double the amount of wildfires in the first four months of the year.  The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported that 44,647 wildfires in the United States had burned 5.6 million acres of land.

Canada and Russia had abnormal heatwave temperatures that turned snow covered areas into deserts.  

“The largest blazes in Oregon’s history” consume more than 364,000 acres of land, the BBC reports. More than 2,000 firefighters, which began on 6 July. Hundreds of homes consumed by the flames.

News Sources, This Week and BBC.

The UK is hosting a major UN climate summit, known as COP26, in Glasgow this November.

Green Watford say “Together we will show decision makers that people from all walks of life are stepping up to take action on climate change – and we need them to step up too.”

Carbon Footprints  (UK’s carbon footprint)

The major contributors to carbon footprints are: food, consumption, transportation, and household energy.

The global temperature has risen significantly since the Industrial Revolution and particularly steeply over the past 40 years., with increasingly levels of human activity.  the COVID-19 lockdown saw massive reductions in transport and electricity use.

New environmental documentaries to watch for 2021

David Attenborough: A Life on our Planet, directed by Alastair Fothergill, Jonathan Hughes and Keith Scholey (2020) After one of the hottest years on record, Sir David Attenborough looks at the science of climate change and potential solutions to this global threat. Interviews with some of the world’s leading climate scientists explore recent extreme weather conditions such as unprecedented storms and catastrophic wildfires. They also reveal what dangerous levels of climate change could mean for both human populations and the natural world in the future.

8 Billion Angels (2021)  Award-winning documentary examines the effects humans have on the planet.

Seaspiracy, directed by Ali Tabrizi (2021) Examines the global fishing industry, challenging notions of sustainable fishing and showing how human.

Kiss the Ground, directed by Rebecca Harrell Tickell and Josh Tickell (2020)

I Am Greta, directed by Nathan Grossman (2020)

‘Britain’s Wild Weather’ Pnorama

Honeyland, directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov (2019)

Ice on Fire, directed by Leila Conners (2019) Explores the potential extinction level event caused by arctic methane release, and the newly developed technologies.

My Octopus Teacher, directed by James Reed and Pippa Ehrlich (2020) Bafta-winning documentary

More information on Climate Change

http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/ – Read about the science of climate change, the impacts it will have and the mitigation strategies needed to reduce its effects. If you do not want to read the full report, the summary for policy makers is a shorter document which summarises all the main points.

http://newsroom.unfccc.int/ – Read about the Paris Agreement, see how many countries have ratified it and keep up to date on all news concerning climate change.

https://www.theccc.org.uk/ – Information on how the UK is adapting to climate change and how it is reducing its emissions. 

http://climate.nasa.gov/ – Contains insightful infographics, recent news stories on climate change and explains how NASA is collecting data relating to Climate Change.