WHY A GP IS BLOCKING THE ROAD TO STOP A NURSE FROM ATTENDING TO HER PATIENT
"The climate is the greatest calamity humankind has ever faced. We are in real trouble here and the government is failing and the world is failing. We are not bringing carbon emissions down. Our government is failing to meet 80% of its own targets and the UN is telling us that instead of a 50% drop in emissions we are looking by 2030 to a rise in emissions, maybe 16%. This is really dire, Jeremy and your audience needs to realise that we have a massive problem and we have a government that is failing. The dire reality of our situation has to be faced.
"We need to try and get something done here, where we live. Insulating is something that people can understand. The climate emergency is enormous and frightening. By insulating buildings, we reduce emissions by 15%. We can create hundreds of thousands of really useful, proper jobs. It is levelling up that is exactly what the government wants. And the biggest thing is we can get millions of people out of fuel poverty. It is a crime that 4 million children live in houses where their parents have to decide between food and fuel. That is criminal.
VINE: You have been arrested several times, I understand. Why, as a doctor, are you OK with sitting on a road blocking a nurse getting to her patient?
GP: We are really sorry for the disruption we cause. But the world needs disrupting. I am seeing this. It is really difficult. It is to do with relative risk. We are asking people to miss a meal to help save the whole world from starving to death.
VINE: Letting the one nurse through makes no difference to climate change. Why did you not let her through?
GP: It does make a difference to climate change. I am here. I am talking to your audience, Jeremy. That is a really big achievement. People need to know that the problem is enormous and we need to have a solution. Boris needs to get on with this job and sort things out.
GP: The real risk to humanity is from normal business as usual. We are not getting the carbon emissions down. The recent Chatham House report in September has stated that we have only a 1 in 20 chance of meeting even the 2 C rise in temperature, let alone the 1.5 C rise. We are in trouble and we need to have a long term view.
VINE: Why is this bit of the law not important to you?
GP: The law is important to me. Believe you me, I have tried absolutely everything. I have written to MPs, I have lectured and published in the medical press. I have stood outside Parliament. I have done everything you could possibly imagine. Where have we got? We have got absolutely nowhere. Even Prince Charles who does not agree with what we are doing says, "We have got nowhere." He's been doing it for 40 years. I've been doing it for 30 years. And we have to do something different. Insulate Britain is bringing the problem down to something that people can understand. If we had warm homes; if you had heating bills of only 10% of what you've got now that would be real. As would saving 8 to 10,000 people dying every year from the cold. This is a crime. People should not be dying in the sixth richest country in the world from the cold.
No comments:
Post a Comment