Climate Activities at Gorton & Longsight Library

Gorton & Longsight Library have recently screened The People’s Emergency Briefing, a non partisan film that shares information from 9 experts on the effects and impacts of Climate Change on our lives in the UK both at present and as we move forward.

Longsight Library’s session was attended by local MP Hannah Spencer and Rusholme’s councillor Cllr. Shams Syed.

The film looks at the following categories, both the key issues and key solutions:

• Weather Extremes, including heatwaves, of which we have experience 5 this summer, mega floods, wildfires
• Climate, including 1.5 degree target out of reach, UK’s fair share of the remaining 2 degree carbon budget
• Nature, including 1 in 6 species are now at risk of extinction,
• Tipping Points, increased extreme weather risks as complex systems change
• Food Security, loss of suitable agricultural land, food price inflation
• Health, increase deaths due to temperature increase and increase of communicable diseases
• Economics, costs of inaction massively outweigh the cost of action
• National Security, climate change becomes a threat enhancer
• Energy Transition, currently there are 12 million households struggling to pay their energy bills

The good news is that there are solutions and actions that we can partake in to all of these from shifting to a more plant based diet, (mass scale farming of animals is incredibly carbon and water intensive compared to the farming of crops), a transition to renewable energy sources away from fossil fuels, restoring wetlands, peatlands and hedgerows, retrofitting buildings etc.

After the film we had a discussion. People were invited to break into small groups and come up with 3 words in reaction to the information in the film. Reactions were mixed and as you would expect a lot of them very emotive, such as scared, worried, depressed. We also had ones such as motivated and hopeful

Longsight Library’s screening ran a children’s climate workshop at the same time, allowing parents to attend the screening more easily due to it being shown on a Friday afternoon during the school holidays! This was delivered by Manchester Environmental Education Network (MEEN). MEEN delivers workshops in schools. The young people then came upstairs and joined us for the last 20 mins and invited us to commit to an action in response to Climate Change. they had made leaves for us to write our pledges on and hang on a climate action tree. Their involvement was a brilliant way to close the afternoon so that we were all left feeling a little lighter and committed to next steps actions.

We were also joined by volunteers from Manchester Friends of the Earth: Home who brought along a whole host of ways for people to get involved in action against Climate Change.

Don’t worry if you missed either of these screenings. Manchester Libraries will be hosting more in the near future including one at Central Library on Monday 28 September to find out more and book a free ticket check out the Eventbrite page here.

Screenings of the People’s Emergency Briefing can be found on the National Emergency Briefing’s screening map here: National Emergency Briefing

Manchester City Council is committed in making Manchester a healthy, green and socially-just city. One where everyone can thrive. Both the city and the Council have committed to reducing carbon emissions – the main cause of climate change. We have a shared goal to be a zero-carbon city by 2038. to find out more head over to MCC website: Zero Carbon Manchester | Zero Carbon Manchester | Manchester City Council