The Sustainable Community Strategy for South Somerset
SOUTH SOMERSET TOGETHER
The strategy so far has involved a great deal of thought and work when I have not been involved.
I was encouraged to see the word “sustainable” in the title.
Goal 14: Move towards a zero carbon economy by 2050” would impress many but “move towards” is a weak expression when America’s top climate scientist (James Hansen) warns ‘we only have a decade to save the planet’. [Independent 15 September 2006].
Few would assert that the exceptional heatwaves, floods, hurricanes, etc. that we have experienced so far, cannot be attributed to the worldwide average temperature rise of 0.7 degrees. Journalist George Monbiot. wrote, “If we’re to have a high chance of preventing global temperatures from rising by 2C above pre-industrial levels we need, in the rich nations, a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (This is explained, with references, in his book, Heat: how to stop the planet burning.)
After publishing his latest paper Hansen writes, ‘I find it almost inconceivable that “business as usual” climate change will not result in a rise in sea level measured in metres within a century.’ James Hansen New Scientist 5 July 2007.
Professor James Hansen heads NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. A physicist and astronomer by training, he has been studying and modelling the human impact on Earth’s climate since the late 1970s, and has published more than 100 papers. He entered the public spotlight in the 1980s with his outspoken testimony to congressional committees on climate change.
If then we continue as we are, where will the refugees from London and the banks of the Severn Estuary go?
Sadly, I judge the Sustainable Community Strategy for South Somerset to be barely modified “business as usual”. “Business as usual” or anything like it, is not sustainable.
If I walk due west down East Street I am moving in the general direction of New York yet it would be ridiculous to claim that my walk is serious progress towards that city. That, however, is an indication of the gulf between what is needed and what the Strategy proposes.
Though our current way of life is not sustainable, humans are capable of creating satisfying lives in all sorts of circumstances. Lives which may of necessity have to be simpler, may well turn out to be better in more respects than we currently anticipate.
Professor James Lovelock (a leading environmental scientist consulted by the Thatcher government and author of The Revenge of Gaia, has described current government policy as “pussy-footing around”. To be serious about the environmental threat, I recommend that Goal number 1 (rather than 14) should read: All partners committed to an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2017 and a further10% of current emissions (90% in all) by 2030.