the guardian)
Government’s top climate adviser warns policymakers will be judged harshly by future generations if they don’t act now
Matthew TaylorLast modified on Mon 16 Jul 2018 12.47 BST
The government’s official climate change adviser says politicians and policymakers are failing to rise to the challenge of a rapidly warming planet and will be judged harshly by future generations unless they act now.Lord Deben, chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC), said “anyone who read the news” could see mounting evidence of alarming trends – from melting polar ice to record heatwaves and rising sea levels. He called on politicians to “make the connections” between these events and act with more urgency.
“The thing that I want to bring home to policymakers is that this is increasingly urgent and that these things will be laid at your door if you don’t recognise that and act accordingly.”
Deben compared the threat posed by climate change to the black death, adding: “With the black death, where one in three of the population died, we did not know how it happened, how it spread, so we were not responsible.
“With climate change we do know and so we are responsible. So it is no good saying ‘oh well, it will all work out one way or another’. We are responsible, and if we don’t take on that responsibility we are shoving it on to our children and no parent should do that in any circumstances.”
