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UK National Emergency Briefing: nature is ‘critical national infrastructure’

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Politicians, business leaders and broadcasters are being asked to engage in an urgent public information campaign about the climate crisis. 

Last month, 1,200 public and private sector leaders, alongside journalists, religious heads, and figures from culture and sport, gathered in Westminster Central Hall. The event featured 10 experts, each delivering a different speech on why the government needs to take stronger action and increase communications around the environment. 

Among those presenting was Nathalie Seddon, a former Royal Society University Research Fellow and Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Oxford. Her talk focused on the argument that nature is ‘not a nice to have’, but ‘critical national infrastructure’ which protects against flooding, boosts food security and offers greater economic stability. 

Despite this, Britain has lost 47% of its biodiversity and one-on-six species faces extinction. Meanwhile, millions of households life in fear of rivers bursting banks and other extreme weather events. Even so, ‘we are still paying to destroy our own life support system’ with ‘public money and finance [used to] subsidise pollution and ecosystem damage.’ 

The National Emergency Briefing campaign is now looking for public signatures for an open letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Tim Davie (BBC), Carolyn McCall (ITV), Jonathan Allan (Channel 4), Sarah Rose (Channel 5), Geraint Evans (S4C), and Dame Melanie Dawes (Ofcom). The aim is to trigger a committed and comprehensive communications push to try and increase understandings as to how grave the situation is becoming. This follows the most recent Climate Change Committee report.

Image: S N Pattenden / Unsplash 

You can find details, and add your name, here

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