June 11th, 2022
First, this month, I want to draw everyone’s attention to another government consultation – this time about air quality targets.
It closes on June 27th, so get going as soon as possible. Please! Here’s a link to the online tool created by Asthma and Lung UK, to help us respond.
(Sorry that looks such a convoluted link, but it takes you to the right place if you click on it!)
I’ve written about Ella Roberta Adoo Kissi-Debrah in a previous blog post. She died on February 15th, 2013, aged nine. She was the first person in England to have air pollution named as a cause of death by a coroner.
Every year, tens of thousands of people around the UK are killed by air pollution. As the Green Party is saying, “It’s time to clean up the air in our towns and cities.” (All around the world of course)
It’s time for Ella’s Law – this is the other name for Baroness Jenny Jones’ Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill, which could make a huge difference to air quality.
Clean Air Day is June 16th, next Thursday (ironically, the day we look after our grandchildren in polluted Bristol….) – at 10am supporters of the Bill will meet at the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster, London and proceed to the Joseph Bazelgette memorial by Hungerford Bridge (about 15 minutes walk). The event will end there at about 12 noon.
Please ask your MP to join the event.
I realise of course that you might think that spending time responding to yet another government consultation is a waste…..This damaging government/prime minister thinks it/he can do what it/he likes, after all, as we’ve seen once too often. Our ideas/appeals are so often ignored, but we must absolutely not let anything go unchallenged. We need to show that our apathy, ignorance, reluctance to change etc….can no longer be depended on.
Many more of us are no longer ‘turning a blind eye’….
Two other areas that illustrate the current government’s lack of commitment to a safe, healthy future –
Boris Johnson’s new food strategy for England contains virtually no new measures to tackle the soaring cost of food, childhood hunger, obesity or the climate emergency, a leaked version of the white paper shows.
The strategy was supposed to be a groundbreaking response to recommendations from the Henry Dimbleby (of ‘Leon’ fame….) – he made a number of high-profile suggestions, including the expansion of free school meals, increasing environment and welfare standards in farming, and a 30% reduction in meat and dairy consumption.
I had such high hopes, mentioned in a previous blog…..!!
Henry Dimbleby took the time/care to say he’d do his best for my grandchildren – he was invited by the government; and they’re ignoring him and all grandchildren…..
Just as they’re ignoring their own Climate Change Committee ….
which leads me to the second example of appalling regressive government policy.
I found out, from the countryside charity CPRE, that the government has made the absurd and bizarre decision to approve the drilling of a gas well on the edge of the Surrey Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The start of the return of fracking, in other words…
Sorry to focus on all this bad news.
Somehow, I’m even more determined not to be gloomy now –
we must shout even louder the closer we get to 2030.
So, maybe consider spreading the word about the RSPB and CPRE – even these mainstream/conservative organisations are campaigning.
Complacent people in power around the world are the extremists – not us……
PS I’ve just come back from a train trip around Germany, with my husband – on our return to Gloucester station, we met a taxi driver who informed me about ‘Agenda 30’.
To my shame, I’d never heard of this: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership to end poverty and other deprivations, to go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health & education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth, all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. The Agenda was adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015……
We need to remind our government – 2030 is now only 7 and a half years away…..
Grandmother's questions 