Vicki Pite from Enfield Climate Action Forum (EnCAF) outlines the messages in an “emergency briefing” film about the implications of climate breakdown and describes some of the reactions from the audience at a recent screening at the Dugdale Centre.
On Saturday 13 June a packed Dugdale Centre waited expectantly for the public screening of The People’s Emergency Briefing sponsored by Enfield Climate Action Forum (EnCaf) with practical arrangements by the Dugdale Centre.
The origin of the film was an event held in Westminster Hall last November, the first National Emergency Briefing (NEB). The UK's top scientists, economists and doctors briefed 1200 MPs and decision makers on the implications of climate and nature breakdown for all areas of our lives. The film we saw was an edited record of that event.
Naturalist Chris Packham introduced the film by promising that it would initiate “the honest local conversation we now urgently need” and “what we can do, together with our politicians, to build a better future.”
And so it did. But realising this aim requires nationwide, viral, viewing.
Therefore NEB Priority 1 is to show the film nationwide on primetime TV. This means persuading our MPs to join over 100 of their colleagues in a Parliamentary Call for a national televised briefing. We need our decision makers to back it.
Hence we were delighted to see Bambos Charalambous MP (Southgate and Wood Green) in the audience.
The film was simple in format – ten of the nation’s leading scientists and experts presented the unfiltered facts on the impact of increasing global temperatures on climate and nature and the consequence for life in the UK. That “physics doesn’t do politics” raised a knowing laugh.
Authentic, provocative images, not “warnings about what might happen in the future” but “what is happening right now”, underpinned the experts’ warnings about the risks under these headings: Extreme Weather Events, Food Security, Health, National Security and Nature. The message, in a nutshell, was a potential “cascade of crisis” risking an “ungovernable state.”
Following the screening participants were invited to examine their emotional response to the film and reflect on actions that they might consider taking as a result.
The audience was left with little doubt that what we had witnessed deserved to be called an emergency. Some expressed anger or sadness at “hearing the truth”. Others were accepting and fatalistic.
But discussions quickly focussed on the sort of reaction we envisage in response to a “National Emergency”…. Should it be like Covid we wondered? If nature is “part of our critical infrastructure” how can we justify building on green belt countryside? What does “delay never pays” mean in practice?
What surprised and encouraged many were the final sessions called “Economy”, “Tipping Points” and “Energy Transition” that revealed the possibilities of credible, positive action and elicited expressions of optimism “because we can take action,” though the “necessary levels of adaptation are huge”.
Scepticism was expressed about governments’ capacity to deliver and the “lobbying power of the corporates” that fuels consumerism, waste and exploitation of natural resources.
Ultimately the success of the event can be measured by participants’ positive response to NEB PRIORITY 2 ie an ambition to get others to watch the film.
Details can be found on the National Emergency Briefing website.
A chance to see the People's Emergency Briefing film in Wood Green
If you weren't able to attend the screening at the Dugdale Centre, a coalition of environmental campaigners in Haringey borough are inviting Palmers Green Community readers to watch it at the Central Library in Wood Green on Saturday 11th July.
The screening will be followed by a discussion. The event runs from 2pm to 4pm.
The screening is likely to be a sell-out, so book your tickets now.