Are we headed for extinction?
Milica Kitson has seen a few presentations now from Extinction Rebellion and then subsequent conversations with the construction industry. Every one of them has been positive, inspiring and signalled it’s time we changed our approach
The latest Extinction Rebellion breakfast event in Llandudno this week was a great morning: excellent presentations, great discussion, amazing energy in the room from people wanting to do something. And wanting to see change now!
Mike Bastow, Cathy Allen and Alison Layland presented an hours’ worth of facts and evidence about climate change. Their presentation is available for all to see but one of the stark facts I picked up was that the UK imports 42% of our food. Much of this food comes from countries who will be unable to produce it in 20 years’ time because of the impact of climate change.
We were also fortunate to have an update on Fairbourne, the village in Gwynedd where we will have the first climate change refugees – they will have to leave their homes without compensation, there is nothing in place for these people.
Climate change isn’t someone else’s problem, it will happen to you, to us, Fairbourne is proof.
The positive from today is that most, if not all, the 30 delegates in the room want to form a working group to take forward some of the things discussed. It was clear, people want more action from both Welsh Government and UK Government. Legislation was mentioned several times. It was felt we could do more with Welsh Building Regs – implementation should be much quicker. This was the tip of the iceberg from this morning.
CEWales will set up this working group here in North Wales within the next few weeks, we will also test the waters in South Wales. We will invite key decision makers from Welsh Government and the wider public sector to work with us.
I have said on numerous occasions, this industry of ours is exceptional; there isn’t anything it cannot do. We have some of the most experienced, talented people here in Wales who have designed and delivered some of the most complex projects around the world – and I don’t just refer to new, I refer to bringing new solutions to old structures too.
Let’s make good use of this experience and talent together with our young people.