This colourful logo was used by Transition Town Chichester for publicity material to advertise its meeting at the Assembly Room, Chichester on the 15th October. The event was attended by around 120 people who heard heard presentations of how climate change will force us to adapt and become more resilient as a society and what can be done by local communities as well as local authorities to help this process.
There were stalls provided by local environmental organisations to peruse before the presentations and at the tea break and after the presentations there was also a lively question time panel
Keynote speaker, Tony Whitbread, President of Sussex Wildlife Trust reminded the audience that there is widespread agreement at the international level on what needs to be down to reduce emissions and stop global warming causing catastrophic effects around the world but international governments continue to stall on hard decisions. We are now in a short period of time where every delay in transitioning to what needs to be done means we may run out of time and so have to accept a world of climate chaos.
It was heartening to hear what the Manhood Community and Heritage group had achieved in the last 25 years and the part played by their project officer, Jane Reeve and the many volunteers and local people that contributed to the success of its projects. They are doing a great job in restoring some the the adverse effects of climate change, overdevelopment and the impact of damaging modern agricultural practices on wildlife, especially the endangered water vole population.
Richard Austin, National Landscape Director at Chichester Harbour Conservancy Council described the great challenges facing the Harbour at the moment. The habitat quality of the harbour’s area has deteriorated significantly over recent times with a consequent reduction of bird numbers and some of this is down to climate change effects. A huge loss of of salt marsh areas, poor water quality, and of course sewage have degraded the habitat as well as amenity value of the harbour. The designated harbour area should be extended to cover the catchment area to deal with agricultural chemicals washed off the land and the Planning Inspectorate who have approved large housing sites on the boundary of the existing area must consider the disturbance effect on the designated area.
The District Council and the County Council explained their new approaches to adaptation. The County Council showed maps of how vulnerable parts of the county are to climate change and Chichester, harbour villages, and the Manhood peninsula unsurprisingly score highly on their overall vulnerability index. So all we need now is action!
Transition Town Chichester is part of the national movement of Transition Towns. Their climate change group was formed recently to organise events throughout the year on issues of local interest and concern.To learn more about their projects please look at their website www.transitionchichester.org or follow them on facebook. The event was filmed and these, together with supporting notes and presentations are available.
CMcK 20/10/24 v3