Any Questions outcome: The Planet is Stuffed

Published on Wed 31st Oct 2007

Hereward Cooke

In a letter to the EDP/Evening News Cllr Hereward Cooke called on the people of Norwich to become the "5% people"

Dear Sir,

In last Friday`s Any Questions? staged at the John Innes Centre there was a telling moment that presents a challenge to us all. A question was asked as to whether compelling advice could be given to the driver of a large gas-guzzling car to help her change her carbon foot-print. In reply, Jonathan Porritt, the Government`s chief adviser on the environment reviewed the present inadequate responses to the impending gloom of global warming and said: "Frankly, the planet is stuffed!"

The reaction from the audience of over 250 was to laugh and applaud. We laughed out of fear that life as we know it is on the verge of extinction and we applauded because at last somebody who knew his subject had spoken out in public with his final pithy summary of the situation. I suppose that if we have to go by flood, pestilence and storm, we might as well go laughing!

But the challenge to our way of life has now become very clear. Centralised solutions from the Government, the EU, Kyoto etc will filter through very slowly and deliver adequate policies too late. It is up to us, the people whose livelihoods will be destroyed and whose future generations will suffer, to take the matter into our own hands.

Could we, as the people of Norfolk, agree, household by household and business by business, to reduce our carbon output by 5% a year? Could we change our driving habits, increase our home insulation, wear more clothing, change a light bulb to reach that relatively modest target? Because I can tell you, I don't want anybody to be stuffed without at least a joint effort at resolving the problem. Can we be the 5% people?

Councillor Hereward Cooke

Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Norwich City Hall