Showgoers support call for action on climate change

As July temperatures reach record breaking levels, people attending the Royal Welsh Show have been quick to back a campaign calling on politicians to do more to tackle the problem of climate change.

The campaign, run by Friends of the Earth Cymru, asks people to sign a postcard to their MP urging him or her to support the Climate Change Bill [1]. This will compel the government to introduce measures to reduce
emissions of carbon dioxide, the main gas causing climate change, by three per cent each year. At present, levels of carbon dioxide emitted by the UK are rising [2].

Friends of the Earth Cymru spokesperson, Gordon James, said:

"The response to this campaign at our stall at the Royal Welsh Show has been incredible. People have readily signed postcards urging their MPs to do more about climate change and many have been keen to obtain information about how they can reduce energy use in their homes or install solar power or wind
energy systems.

There has been a noticeable increase in concern about climate change since last year's show. People are definitely becoming much more aware of the threat it poses, particularly to our children and grandchildren, and of the need for urgent action to address the problem.

It is time that politicians responded to these concerns by quickly introducing measures that would reduce emissions of the gases, such as carbon dioxide, that are fuelling climate change. Scientific evidence is
increasingly showing that we don't have much time left to turn things around.[3]"

Notes

1) The Climate Change Bill (www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/ ¬
cmbills/043/06043.i-i.html) would set targets for carbon dioxide emissions to be cut by 3% every year until 2050. It would also require the Prime Minister to report to Parliament annually on the Government's performance in meeting these legal targets and set up mechanisms to keep the Government on target, ranging from new powers for Select Affairs Committees to cuts in ministerial salaries. 378 MPs (out of a total of 646), representing a majority from each of the political parties, have now signed EDM 178 in support of the Bill. More details of Friends of the Earth's 'Big Ask' campaign in support of the Climate Change Bill can be found at:

www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/news/big_ask.html

2) According to the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990 to 2004) the UK , in 2000, emitted 562,900,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide but by 2004 this had risen to 576,600,000.

3)

• On July 23rd this year, The Independent on Sunday reported that the US Woods Hole Research Institute has concluded that Amazonia cannot withstand more than two years of drought without breaking down. This year, it appears to be entering its second successive year of drought threatening to begin a process that could release billions of tonnes of carbon and massively increase global warming.
• On August 11th 2005 , the New Scientist reported that research by scientists from Oxford University and Tomsk State University in Russia had recorded the melting of an area of Siberian bog the size of Germany and France combined and that this threatened to unleash billions of tonnes of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.
• On September 29th 2005, the BBC news website reported that scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Centre at the University of Colorado had identified a record loss of sea ice in the Artic indicating that the Arctic has entered an irreversible phase of warming that would accelerate the melting of the polar ice that has helped to keep the climate stable for thousands of years.