66% of adults are ‘worried by the state of the planet, climate change and the decline of wildlife and nature’.
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The IPCC report which came out on Monday was really telling us something – as relayed by the Prime Minister:
The IPCC Report: “a wake-up call” – Vision Group for Sidmouth
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The Carbon Brief gives an ‘in-depth’ Q&A of the report:
Summarising the “physical science basis” for climate change, the report pulls together the findings from more than 14,000 peer-reviewed studies. The authors conclude that it is “unequivocal” that humans have warmed the planet, causing “widespread and rapid” changes to Earth’s oceans, ice and land surface.
In-depth Q&A: The IPCC’s sixth assessment report on climate science | Carbon Brief
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Meanwhile, today, Tim Root of the Friends of the Earth, writing for the Renewal magazine, suggests that this issue really has become mainstream:
CLIMATE CONCERN SPREADING THROUGHOUT SOCIETY
It is also vital for climate campaigns to increase their influence by getting more supporters from across the political spectrum and from different parts of society. Daily Telegraph leader writer Tim Stanley recently warned ‘The Earth is in trouble and it’s the most important crisis we face … If we don’t act now, an entire way of life will be destroyed’. The Director General of the Confederation of British Industry recently said ‘The climate crisis is worsening and currently we’re way off track’.
In most countries the media now generally cover climate change as an important issue, and more often. In the UK even the formerly sceptical Daily Express has improved most of its coverage, starting with its 8 February headline “Join our Green Britain revolution”, with its familiar masthead coloured green. This article highlights its poll finding that 66% of adults are ‘worried by the state of the planet, climate change and the decline of wildlife and nature’. It called on Boris Johnson to ‘show world leadership on the issue’ at the G7 and COP 26.
This illustrates that it should be possible for broader campaign coalitions to be nurtured. Such coalitions would show society, and the media, that climate campaigning is now mainstream, and no longer the preserve of radicals. This would have guilty institutions like banks urgently reviewing their business model.
Curbing climate breakdown in time | Renewal
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Back in 2019, the likes of Forbes and the World Economic Forum were proclaiming that this was indeed no longer the ‘preserve of radicals’:
This is how climate science went mainstream | World Economic Forum
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And at the beginning of the year, Nature was asking the question:
Will Nature Go Mainstream in 2021?
5 ways the pandemic has shown us nature is everything
One of the many things we’ve learned from the global shock of COVID-19 is just how intertwined humanity is with nature.
Will Nature Go Mainstream in 2021? | The Nature Conservancy
And this year, there has been a huge amount of interest from finance and business:
Green Finance Goes Mainstream, Lining Up Trillions Behind Global Energy Transition – WSJ