Help us solve Climate Change

The Big Bang 2010 – Hundreds of Young People Ask for PM’s Help on Climate Change

This year at The Big Bang 2010 the Royal Meteorological Society, the Science Council and other member organisations came together to help give young people a voice and let Parliament know what they really think about climate change. Young people attending the event were invited to write a postcard directly to the Prime Minister telling him just what climate change means to them. All the thoughts currently buzzing around the heads of the nation’s next generation of leaders have now been compiled into a report which has been distributed to the leaders of each political party in the run up to the general election.

The majority of the young people involved believe that climate change is an important issue that needs to be addressed with great urgency, with over 50% seeing climate change as having a negative affect on our environment. There were many calls for help to the Prime Minister with students citing the Government as crucial in the fight against climate change. However, the overriding feeling is that the important messages of why it’s happening, what the affects will be and how we can help to reduce it are all being missed.

Understanding of the science behind climate change was shown to be almost non-existent with a number of young people citing Hollywood films are their source of information. Some think climate change is simply a way of the Government extorting taxes from the population whilst others believe climate change will be beneficial in the UK as we will have improved summers.

Climate change is now one of the major hurdles facing the global community in the 21st Century and should be at the forefront of the political agenda. In their manifestoes none of the three major parties state climate change as one of their key priorities following the election. This is clearly in direct contrast to the views of our young population. Our students undoubtedly want to be inspired by the government to act on this important issue but feel they lack any sort of strong leadership and direction. We, therefore, urge the leaders of each political party to review the comments of the next generation of voters and make a strong commitment to protect our climate.

Notes and contact details:

Contacts:
Sarah Grintzevitch
+44 (0) 118 956 8500
sarah.grintzevitch@rmets.org
Tamasin Barnbrook
+44 (0) 20 7922 7882
ceoffice@sciencecouncil.org

The Royal Meteorological Society is the UK’s Professional and Learned Society for Weather and Climate. The Society was founded as the British Meteorological Society on 3 April 1850. It became the Royal Meteorological Society in 1883, when Her Majesty Queen Victoria granted the privilege of adding ‘Royal’ to the title. The Society is a registered charity, based in Reading, UK.

The President of the Society is Professor Julia Slingo OBE, the Chief Scientist at the UK Met Office; the Chief Executive of the Society is Professor Paul Hardaker; and the Head of Communications is Sarah Grintzevitch. The Society is contactable via email at chiefexec@rmets.org or via telephone on 0118 956 8500. Its website can be found at www.rmets.org.

The Science Council is a membership organisation representing the learned societies and professional institutions across the breadth of science in the UK. Its purpose is to provide a collective voice for science and scientists and to maintain standards across all the scientific disciplines.

The President of the Science Council is Sir Tom McKillop and the Chief Executive of the Science Council is Diana Garnham; and the PA to the Chief Executive is Tamasin Barnbrook. The Science Council is contactable via email at ceoffice@sciencecouncil.org or via telephone on 020 7922 7888. Its website can be found at www.sciencecouncil.org.