Tackling the heat crisis

Francis Sealey from Enfield Climate Action Forum invites local people to take part in the group’s next big discussion

A man watches a grass fire — credit Adam Wilson via Unsplash

In a few years, extreme heatwaves could cause an additional 7,000 to 10,000 heat-related deaths annually in the UK.

This subject will be the topic of the next online meeting of Enfield Climate Action Forum (EnCaf), when we will be joined by Toby Perkins MP, chair of the Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee.

Toby and his cross-party committee have long campaigned for the UK government to address extreme weather like high temperatures more seriously, saying “the evidence could not be clearer that extreme heat is an urgent threat to the UK” but warning that the government is currently falling “far short of what is needed”.

It is the most vulnerable people in society who are affected the most, and Kierra Box from Friends of the Earth will also be joining this month’s EnCaf meeting to discuss the work that Friends of the Earth has done to identify those areas in the UK most affected, as well as what groups like ours can do.

So what can we do about it locally will be the topic addressed by Dr Mehri Khosravi a senior research fellow at the University of East London.

This is a crucial question and EnCaf is already working with schools and communities in some of the most deprived parts of Enfield, measuring air pollution and involving businesses in sponsoring tree planting.

We have held two ‘wild weather cafes‘ to find out that local people think about the heat crisis facing them and what they think should be done, and we are now planning to collect a series of audio stories from local people.

EnCaf’s discussion on Wednesday, 29th July from 7pm should be a catalyst for this and much more. Please join us to discuss the heat crisis, how serious will it get, who will be affected the most and what we can do to help each other.

Our forums are monthly and have sometimes attracted more than 100 registrations. So if you would like to join us in this forum and take part in the discussion, you can register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/JvYV7eu2TNymZ81
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