East London Humanists argue that climate and the environment should be at the top of the agenda in the upcoming general election (Barking & Dagenham Post opinion piece 20.11.19)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
A\nremarkable emblem of human ingenuity lies just upstream from Barking. It\u2019s also a powerful reminder of our frailty.\nThe Thames Barrier was built in the wake of the North Sea Flood which took over\n2000 lives in 1953, 49 on Canvey Island alone. It\u2019s just one reminder why\nclimate and the environment should be at the top of everyone\u2019s agenda this\nelection, whatever their political persuasion. To quote David Attenborough \u2018What\nwe do in the next twenty years will determine the future of all life on earth.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nbarrier has done a brilliant job protecting Central London. But Met Office Climate Projection figures\nshow sea levels are set to continue to rise. Swathes of London are at risk\naccording to the Environment Agency flood map, including parts of Barking and\nDagenham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can\u2019t expect other countries to play their part unless we do too. You may find environmental activists annoying, but if your house is in danger of being laid waste a rude awakening might be welcome. Of course we could all do more ourselves to lead environmentally kinder lives, but changing lifestyles is difficult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The point is that there is only so much we can do as individuals. The Barrier is a concrete example of far-reaching measures which only Government can realise. It brings home the importance of acting before disaster strikes, and being mindful that the environmental policies of the Government chosen for the next five years will be crucial long after Brexit is \u2018sorted.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul Kaufman (East London Humanists are staging an Election Hustings at Wanstead Library 25.11.19 on Climate and the Environment. The candidates for the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Parties will be on the panel).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" East London Humanists argue that climate and the environment should be at the top of the agenda in the upcoming general election (Barking & Dagenham Post opinion piece 20.11.19)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9c4oP-wZ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2045"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2047,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Chair East London Humanists<\/p>\n\n\n\n