Let's Talk, Gordon

"Let’s Talk, Gordon was launched in February 2008 by Joe Haymen. Joe writes:"

“I was a late convert to climate change. It was only in 2007 when I went to Ghana and saw devastating floods there that I really became concerned. I came back to the UK and watched An Inconvenient Truth and knew I had to try to do something. I realised that an issue like climate change, with its impacts growing over the coming years, meant that you had to start thinking about how to protect the world for your children and grandchildren, even before they were born.

I became increasingly concerned about Government inaction on climate change – a lot of talk about the issue and targets for reducing harmful emissions, but not enough clarity on the role of individual people in responding to climate change. I wanted to send a message to Gordon Brown that people are ready to talk about what climate change will mean for them and their children, and how they can work with the Government and businesses to respond effectively. I came up with the idea of the televised address as a way of the Prime Minister telling the nation it was time to get serious about climate change and engaging large numbers of people in an informed debate about how we should be responding. Ideally the Prime Minister would make the address to coincide with the new Climate Change Bill coming into law, so we can move the debate on from 'what our emission targets should be' to 'how we are going to achieve them'. I hope that the national debate will help us come up with an action plan on climate change which sets out exactly what the Government, businesses and the general public need to be doing if we're to meet the targets set out in the Climate Change Bill