In Case of Emergency, Create Hope

For those who, like me, have found a rising sense of alarm in recent months looking at the world stage - genocide in Gaza, War in Iran, the rise of the international Far Right, fuelled by a billionaire class accused of distressing depths of personal immorality. For those of us who long for nothing so much as peace, energyfood/job security, and a liveable planet for our children to inherit…Then you may want to come and watch the screening of The People’s Emergency Briefing on May 22^nd - 7pm at Holy Trinity Church on Guildford High street. Because more than anything else in the last 10 years, this speaks to me of Hope.

Mike Berners Lee - no, he didn’t invent the internet; his brother Tim did - one of the foremost climate science communicators in the UK (imagine being at that family table for Christmas) gathered eminent people from a range of fields – climate science, ecology, civil defence, food production, and arranged for them to give a briefing to meeting of MPs, members of the House of Lords, and leaders in industry and culture.

I was there, representing the Bishop of Guildford as his environment officer, and sat next to a colleague from Chelmsford Diocese; we watched row after row of political jaws drop, as the true nature of the threats we are facing were laid bare by speaker after speaker. Climate tipping points, ecosystem collapse, food insecurity, civil breakdown. Chilling truths told plainly and simply.

But, and here’s the thing, what I took away more than anything else – more than sobering truths and hard facts - was actually the shift of mood in the room. Because what started as a shared sense of dread soon migrated, as pockets of applause broke out. The room cheered at certain points, and it became obvious that there was, alongside the fear embedded in of these scenarios, relief that they were being spoken about openly in this manner. Nothing was accusatory, challenges were not made, fingers were not pointed. Just a simple call for this information to be made widely available through television channels, so that everyone would understand the situation for themselves. And that was enough for Hope to rise. Right across the room. Simply from hearing this said.

We know that we are a small island that has done incredible things in the past. Look at the heroic way we came together and fought off the threat to our country in World War Two. Look at what we’ve invented – the Internet, for goodness sake! Half the sports of the Olympics; unending culture; business and fashion that has had influence all over the world.

And here in this room, we were doing it again. Creating the template for a cultural tipping point, a way to get a mandate from the electorate for systemic change. (The Emergency Briefing is in the process of being copied in country after country.) But we did it first. Created as a blueprint for how a country might realistically pull together, underpin one another, and unite to turn the tide on the looming crisis, so we can tuck their children up in bed at night, knowing their future is truly safe.

Because once we all know, we can all act. In unison. Stuff the party politics. We can assent to the type of coalition cabinet used in Emergency Times, that has always united the country behind threats that we have faced.

Panel at the National Emergency Briefing

Chris Packham and Jennifer Saunders on a orange sofa

Chris Packham and Deborah Meaden sat discussing the climate on an orange sofa

Deborah Meaden asking a question to the panel at the National Emergency Briefing

That’s what I took from sitting in Westminster Hall – an immense sense of Hope-At-Last.

If that sounds like the antidote you are looking for from the constant loop of distressing news, then book a free ticket, and come and hear the screening of the film on May 22nd. Bring your other half; bring your mum; bring your landlady and her auntie. We all need to hear this, so together we can call for change.

Book your space