On the 8^th April, Goldfinch books and ACAN jointly hosted one of the first screenings of the People’s Emergency Briefing, here in Alton. The film summarises the 9 expert briefings presented to an audience of business leaders and MPs in Westminster, last November. Topics covered include the food supply, health and national security implications of the climate and nature crises. The news is stark and they don’t pull their punches. On the positive side they talk about the many things we could be doing to improve things, starting right now.

The NEB team are calling for Covid style National Emergency Briefings to be televised and aired on all channels, simultaneously, at a prime-time slot to inform the UK population of the seriousness and urgency of the combined climate and nature emergencies and what we can do to address them.

It worked with Covid – people changed their behaviour based on what they heard in the Covid briefings – we need the same approach now. We firmly believe that the people of Alton are more than ready for this and want to see urgent action being taken, at all levels in our society.

Thanks to our door knocking surveys in the new estates in Alton, ACAN has long known that the vast majority of people want to see radical action on the climate and nature crises and understand that we must work at speed and scale if we are to secure a liveable future for ourselves and our children.

Those survey findings are backed up by our Climate and Nature Meter event, held in Alton High Street on 9^th May, where passers-by were asked 6 questions about climate and nature and what they feel about where we are now. The answers show overwhelmingly, that we know we are facing a precarious future, what we are less sure of is what we can do to limit the damage.

ACAN is screening the People’s Emergency Briefing again at 7pm on Friday 19^th June, kindly hosted by Alton College in their Martin Read Hall, free of charge – reserve your place and see details here.

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/altonclimateactionnetwork/2172853

Please come and bring your, friends, family and colleagues. We all need to know the facts, and we all need to join the groundswell of citizens ready to roll up our sleeves and get on with sorting this out.

Eleanor Hill

Alton Climate Action Network