- Polanski calls for financial support for homes to keep cool, and free cool spaces in every community
- Says extreme weather poses threats to safety, food and water supply, and our way of life
- Calls for fossil fuel giants to pay cost of adapting to extreme weather and fire risk
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has delivered a ‘reality check’ to the Prime Minister as he ‘sounded the alarm’ about the impacts of extreme heat and wildfires in the UK.
Speaking at the end of yet another heat health alert, Polanski warned that ‘what we’re living through right now are likely some of the least extreme summer temperatures we’ll experience in our lifetimes’ and accused new Prime Minister Andy Burnham of failing to act.
The Green leader set out a series of measures he called on Burnham to take to keep people safe from extreme heat, including financial support to keep homes cool and cool spaces in every area, after an estimated 3000 people died as a result of dangerous temperatures in recent months.
Warning that the crisis risked food and water shortages, Polanski called on the government to bring water into full public ownership – saying that water companies had failed to secure our water supply with leaky pipes and a failure to build new reservoirs.
He also cited farmers warning of the risk of empty shelves, after flooding followed by drought led to the UK facing its worst harvest on record.
Polanski was joined at a press conference by an ex-soldier, a GP, and a firefighter, who described the consequences of extreme weather they had seen in their work – and broadcaster Chris Packham who sounded the alarm about the future risks of the climate crisis.
Polanski said:
“The scenes we have seen play out on our television screens are frankly apocalyptic.
“And yet the response from our government is to pretend none of this is happening. It’s an astonishing dereliction of duty from those whose first responsibility is to keep us safe.
“And from the media – with some brilliant and notable exceptions – we’ve seen more clamouring for North Sea drilling in the last few weeks than raising the alarm on climate breakdown.
“While our country has come together – to offer shelter to those who had to leave their homes due to wildfires, to check in with elderly neighbours, to care for those who are sick because of the heat – the government has been far, far too quiet.”
He went on:
“In the immediate term, we need to keep people safe from extreme temperatures. That means a free, accessible cool space in every local area. And financial support for households to heatproof their home.
“Second, we need a robust wildfire prevention strategy. A fire service with the resources it needs to tackle blazes when they come. That must include firefighting helicopters where needed, and not again seeing the shocking sight of requiring a charity to step in to contract a private firm to help fight the fires.
“And this should be funded by taxing the fossil fuel giants who are profiting from fuelling these infernos.
“Finally, to secure our water supply, prevent droughts and protect our food system we need to bring water back into public hands. Right now, money is flowing out of our hands into the pockets of shareholders – just like water is flowing out of these companies’ leaky pipes in the middle of a drought.”
Carl Benfield, former soldier and engineer, said:
“As a soldier and an engineer, I was used to conducting threat assessments and defensive plans. It is clear to me that climate change is the single greatest threat to human security we face.
“Removing climate resilience from our national defence priorities was an act of complete strategic blindness.
“You cannot defend a nation if you refuse to acknowledge the very force that makes its infrastructure obsolete, burns its countryside, and threatens its food and water supply.”
