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5 July 2014 | NewScientist | 5 LEADERS © 2014 Reed Business Information Ltd, England New Scientist is published weekly by Reed Business Information Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by Polestar (Bicester) LOCATIONS UK Lacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1200 Fax +44 (0) 20 7611 1250 AUSTRALIA Tower 2, 475 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, NSW 2067 Tel +61 2 9422 8559 Fax +61 2 9422 8552 USA 225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451 Tel +1 781 734 8770 Fax +1 720 356 9217 201 Mission Street, 26th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105 Tel +1 415 908 3348 Fax +1 415 704 3125 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE For our latest subscription offers, visit newscientist.com/subscribe Customer and subscription services are also available by: Telephone +44 (0) 844 543 80 70 Email [email protected] Web newscientist.com/subscribe Post New Scientist, Rockwood House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DH One year subscription (51 issues) UK £150 CONTACTS Contact us newscientist.com/contact Who’s who newscientist.com/people General & media enquiries Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1202 [email protected] Editorial Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1202 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Picture desk Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1268 Display Advertising Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1291 [email protected] Recruitment Advertising UK Tel +44 (0) 20 8652 4444 [email protected] UK Newsstand Tel +44 (0) 20 3148 3333 Newstrade distributed by Marketforce UK Ltd, The Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark St, London SE1 OSU Syndication Tribune Content Agency Tel +44 (0) 20 7588 7588 [email protected] TOO often, we portray climate change and its consequences as a nightmare. But people don’t like listening to nightmares. They don’t want to believe in nightmares; they want to believe in hope. They want to believe in something different, something better. We need to articulate the debates and discussion around climate change in that context. Policy-makers don’t make the environment and climate change real for people, mattering to their everyday lives and their everyday experience. We are too generalist in the way in which we talk about it. Mention the environment or climate change, and people’s eyes tend to glaze over. But talk to them about their own little patch of environment – about the river at the bottom of their village, or the landscape that surrounds where they live, or the urban streetscape and the way in which it is fashioned – and they become really passionate. They are committed to it. They worry about it. They hope for it. They know what they want to change. Can we link that passion for the local environment with the general principles that surround its management? The public are concerned. They are keen to see progress, and politicians would be mistaken to think that the public don’t care. I believe that while voters don’t see the environment as an overt national priority, they do see it as an underlying sine qua non something that has to be looked after, that has to underpin everything else. So there is hope in this field; it’s not just about going to hell in a handcart. The environment in the UK has been improving over the last 10 or 15 years – I’m thinking about air and water quality and looking after our land. Part of that Brighter shades of green People still care about the environment, argues Chris Smith is down to the hard work of the Environment Agency. Look at the major successes: the dramatic reduction in sulphur dioxide emissions; reductions in nitrogen oxide levels; reduction in the discharge of pollutants to rivers; and improved water quality, which has seen fish return to rivers from the Thames to the Mersey. There are otters in every county in England, which couldn’t have been said a few years ago. So we have made cleaner, better places here in the UK, and we have done that through a mixture of action, hard work, regulation and by bringing pressure to bear on polluters. That’s a success story; it’s something that can be done. Beyond that, there’s a huge economic opportunity in environmental improvement and tackling climate change, by saving money on existing processes and products. In addition, there are new products and services to be brought to market. And it can be done around the world. Look at the amount China is investing in renewable energy such as wind power. It is doing so because it is concerned about its environment: the air quality in its cities, the water it is dependent on from the melting glaciers of the Himalayas. We have seen progress in the US, too, under Barack Obama. Even in Russia, a majority of business leaders are saying that they feel they need to take climate change seriously. So there is scope out there for alliances, for getting countries around the world to agree and do things together. At the personal level, there’s a temptation to think, “What can I as an individual do? If I recycle a bit more, if I make some energy efficiency, if I travel less, if I try to generate less carbon – what is the use of that when China is building another coal-fired power station next week?” But that way lies disaster. If we all thought more positively – “Yes, we can each do a tiny bit” – then it adds up. Over the past 20 years, for example, householders in Germany have embraced renewable energy initiatives, adding them to their properties: there are solar panels and wind turbines everywhere. This was helped by feed-in tariffs, of course, but there was also a real surge in individual effort to embrace renewable energy. That has made a big difference to Germany’s carbon footprint – all thanks to millions of individuals doing their own thing. Individual action doesn’t just make people think about themselves, but it reminds them why all of this is important. And that in itself is a good thing. n To watch Chris Smith’s speech in full, including his 12-point plan for policy-makers, visit bit.ly/RSAenviro. Read more on sustainable living in “Happy Planet”, page 30 PrOfiLe Chris Smith is the outgoing chair of the Environment Agency, which bore the brunt of public anger after floods swept across southern England last winter. Nonetheless, he struck an upbeat note in his final speech, from which this piece is excerpted JEREMY SELWYN EVENING STANDARD/EYEVINE

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Page 1: Brighter shades of green

5 July 2014 | NewScientist | 5

LEADERS

© 2014 Reed Business Information Ltd, England

New Scientist is published weekly by Reed Business Information Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079.

Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by Polestar (Bicester)

LOCATIONSUKLacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1200 Fax +44 (0) 20 7611 1250

AUSTrALIATower 2, 475 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, NSW 2067Tel +61 2 9422 8559 Fax +61 2 9422 8552

USA225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451Tel +1 781 734 8770 Fax +1 720 356 9217

201 Mission Street, 26th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105Tel +1 415 908 3348 Fax +1 415 704 3125

SUbSCrIpTION ServICeFor our latest subscription offers, visitnewscientist.com/subscribe

Customer and subscription services are also available by:Telephone +44 (0) 844 543 80 70email [email protected] newscientist.com/subscribepost New Scientist, Rockwood House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DH

One year subscription (51 issues) UK £150

CONTACTSContact us newscientist.com/contact

Who’s who newscientist.com/people

General & media enquiriesTel +44 (0) 20 7611 1202 [email protected]

editorial Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 [email protected]@[email protected]

picture desk Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1268

Display Advertising Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 [email protected]

recruitment Advertising UK Tel +44 (0) 20 8652 [email protected]

UK Newsstand Tel +44 (0) 20 3148 3333Newstrade distributed by Marketforce UK Ltd, The Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark St, London SE1 OSU

SyndicationTribune Content AgencyTel +44 (0) 20 7588 [email protected]

UK

TOO often, we portray climate change and its consequences as a nightmare. But people don’t like listening to nightmares. They don’t want to believe in nightmares; they want to believe in hope. They want to believe in something different, something better. We need to articulate the debates and discussion around climate change in that context.

Policy-makers don’t make the environment and climate change real for people, mattering to their everyday lives and their everyday experience. We are too generalist in the way in which we talk about it. Mention the environment or climate change, and people’s eyes tend to glaze over.

But talk to them about their own little patch of environment – about the river at the bottom of their village, or the landscape that surrounds where they live, or the urban streetscape and the way in which it is fashioned – and they become really passionate. They are committed to it. They worry about it. They hope for it. They know what they want to change.

Can we link that passion for the local environment with the general principles that surround its management? The public are concerned. They are keen to see progress, and politicians would be mistaken to think that the public don’t care. I believe that while voters don’t see the environment as an overt national priority, they do see it as an underlying sine qua non – something that has to be looked after, that has to underpin everything else.

So there is hope in this field; it’s not just about going to hell in a handcart. The environment in the UK has been improving over the last 10 or 15 years – I’m thinking about air and water quality and looking after our land. Part of that

brighter shades of greenPeople still care about the environment, argues Chris Smith

is down to the hard work of the Environment Agency. Look at the major successes: the dramatic reduction in sulphur dioxide emissions; reductions in nitrogen oxide levels; reduction in the discharge of pollutants to rivers; and improved water quality, which has seen fish return to rivers from the Thames to the Mersey. There are otters in every county in England, which couldn’t have been said a few years ago.

So we have made cleaner, better places here in the UK, and we have done that through a mixture of action, hard work, regulation and by bringing pressure to bear on polluters. That’s a success story; it’s something that can be done. Beyond that, there’s a huge economic opportunity in environmental improvement and tackling climate change, by saving money on existing processes and products. In addition, there are new products and services to be brought to market.

And it can be done around the world. Look at the amount China

is investing in renewable energy such as wind power. It is doing so because it is concerned about its environment: the air quality in its cities, the water it is dependent on from the melting glaciers of the Himalayas. We have seen progress in the US, too, under Barack Obama. Even in Russia, a majority of business leaders are saying that they feel they need to take climate change seriously. So there is scope out there for alliances, for getting countries around the world to agree and do things together.

At the personal level, there’s a temptation to think, “What can I as an individual do? If I recycle a bit more, if I make some energy efficiency, if I travel less, if I try to generate less carbon – what is the use of that when China is building another coal-fired power station next week?” But that way lies disaster. If we all thought more positively – “Yes, we can each do a tiny bit” – then it adds up.

Over the past 20 years, for example, householders in Germany have embraced renewable energy initiatives, adding them to their properties: there are solar panels and wind turbines everywhere. This was helped by feed-in tariffs, of course, but there was also a real surge in individual effort to embrace renewable energy. That has made a big difference to Germany’s carbon footprint – all thanks to millions of individuals doing their own thing.

Individual action doesn’t just make people think about themselves, but it reminds them why all of this is important. And that in itself is a good thing. n

To watch Chris Smith’s speech in full, including his 12-point plan for policy-makers, visit bit.ly/RSAenviro. Read more on sustainable living in “Happy Planet”, page 30

ProfiLeChris Smith is the outgoing chair of the Environment Agency, which bore the brunt of public anger after floods swept across southern England last winter. Nonetheless, he struck an upbeat note in his final speech, from which this piece is excerpted

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