On November 27th, last year, I was privileged to attend the National Emergency Briefing at Central Hall, Westminster. The briefing was primarily aimed at MPs and Peers but was also attended by around 2000 invited members of the public from climate campaigners to celebrities.
The queue, when I arrived, stretched around the block but the organisers got us in efficiently and I found myself sitting next to the sustainability manager of Sainsbury’s. However, there wasn’t much time to chat as the talks started. We kicked off with an introduction from Chris Packham and a preview of what to expect from the main meeting organiser, Pofessor Mike Berners-Lee of “How Bad are Bananas?” fame. Then we were into the main part of the meeting, a series of 15 minute talks from some of the UK’s most eminent experts on the impacts of climate change from Health, to National Security and Economics as well as several talks on the science of climate itself.
I’ve waited until now, to write this blog, because I didn’t want to be writing a long boring description of each talk. Instead, the talks are now all available on-line for you to watch for yourself. Go to https://www.nebriefing.org/ and select each of the talks under “Expert Briefings”. I really can’t recommend these talks highly enough.
The main message I took away from the meeting is perhaps summed up by a sentence from Lt Gen Richard Nugee’s talk on National Security. In that context he stated that “the threat position is changing faster than expected”. This is true of all the aspects covered by the speakers.
Another reason for wanting you to go to the NEB website itself is that you can then sign the open letter to Keir Starmer calling for a televised emergency briefing. Please all sign up.