Our September meeting welcomed Chris Stanley from the District Council to talk about climate change. Chris is the 'Health and Well Being' Manager, with responsibilities for promoting a healthy Lichfield, as well as tackling the difficult issue of developing initiatives in the District aimed at making a contribution to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

The challenge facing Chris was all too evident as a robust debate developed between members of the audience as to how global warming had arisen and whether it was part of a long term natural cycle, or man made. Chris explained the complexities of long term analysis of the planet's temperature and told us of the on-going scientific debates over the potential inter relationship between carbon emissions, melting polar caps, changes in sea level and volatile weather events.

Despite the controversy over this issue, what is clear is that becoming more energy efficient cannot be a bad thing for us all. We can save money and the planet's increasingly scare resources are more carefully managed. So Chris concluded by helping us to understand what we as individuals could do. Home insulation, more careful use of our cars and recycling were all actions we could take which, though small in their own right, could add up collectively to a meaningful contribution to energy saving.

In conclusion, he pointed out that Staffordshire local authorities, led by the County Council have a new website entitled "Our County, Our Climate, Our Choice" which provides a lot of information and advice on energy saving and climate issues. It can be found at www.staffsoc3.org.uk

Roger Hockney
September 2008