I had a political morning today, meeting one of the UK Prime Minister candidates, where I was able to ask him about environmental policies. Just as I left that meeting, I was happy to see the first post from our brand new ‘Climate Change Collective’ group of bloggers. Brilliant!

Michelle and I originally had a conversation about creating a group for bloggers who wanted to write about climate change from our different perspectives and ensure it remained at the top of readers’ minds. It is great to see we already have a buzzing group willing to get involved and I cannot wait to see what each writer has to say.

Here is the very first article which focusses on how climate change is gradually affecting our daily lives:

Welcome To The Climate Change Collective:

My thoughts…

For me, as a geographer, I have always found it hard to convince people that global warming should matter to them and their lives. Michelle has cleverly outlined how it will specifically affect the retirement industry and discussed the impact air pollution is already having on health.

I look at the very flat Fenland area of agricultural land and market towns that is near where I live and worry about its vulnerability. Britain had a record 40 degrees C day in July, which was predicted to happen in twenty years or so. Meteorologists suggest that their initial timeline is redundant as warming has happened much faster than predicted.

If glacial melting is increasing in a feedback loop which is quite unstable, then the Fens could be under water within the next 30 years, as they were centuries ago, prior to drainage. This would destroy homes and demolish one of the largest arable farming patches in Europe.

That would have a massive impact on my life and the lives of many others. There are so many complex aspects to discuss but I do think people have woken up more to climate education, especially after recent turbulent weather occurrences around the world and a drought in the UK. Let’s hope we can bring environmental concerns to the top of government interests.

We can make a difference by urging politicians to invest in renewable energy and make the transport infrastructure much better. I hope that you have time to check out Michelle’s first post and join in with the conversation about climate change and how it is affecting all of us.