Tom
I might be a little way round the globe, but I’ve taken a little
time to write to my local Member of Parliament in England. I’m writing
from an area of the world where the wishes (and votes) of the citizens
are routinely undermined by powerful, corrupt politicians. Living in a
democracy where your voice can still make a difference is a luxury you
may take for granted.
Dear Mr. Hope,
As a member of your constituency I have an important plea for your
consideration, from my current location in Yerevan, the capital city of
Armenia.
I left my home in Middleton in June 2007 on an expedition to travel
round the globe by bicycle. Over the last 8 months, I have pedalled my
way through 14 countries, covering 7,500km by pedal power to my present
location in the Caucasus. Although this is only a fraction of the total
distance I expect to cover during the next few years, my journey has
revealed in reality important worldwide issues that I was only
previously aware of in theory.
I have dealt with the stupendously hot spring and conversely wet
summer of Western Europe in 2007, picking ripe blackberries in June in
Holland and again in October in Bulgaria, while reading news of
tornadoes in London. I saw glaciers in Switzerland that were shrinking
annually rather than advancing through the mountains. I heard an
80-year-old Turkish fisherman lamenting the rarity of snowfall on the
Black Sea coast over the last two decades. I endured the freak
minus-20-degree winter temperatures - the coldest in 25 years - in
Georgia, and listened to the director of WWF Armenia telling me he
hoped that his daughter would be able to play in the snow in the
future. I thought back to my own childhood, when snow in winter was
commonplace, and tried to remember the last time a significant amount
had fallen in England.
These extreme weather patterns, changing climate trends, and effects
on the environment itself, that I have now seen with my own eyes, in
addition to the widepread evidence provided by the scientific community
to anyone with the guts to listen, are the reason I am writing to you
now. I implore you to add your vote to the Climate Change Bill which,
based as it is on now-obsolete information, should be amended to
include a carbon dioxide reduction target of at least 80% by 2050.
This is a global issue, and countries such as ours with the capacity
to lead by example have a moral obligation to act NOW to prevent a
future in which the generations of tomorrow must spend their time on
the planet dealing with the consequences of our actions today.
Should you be interested, a website with more information on my journey can be viewed at www.ride-earth.org.uk.
Please add your vote to amend this Bill.
Yours sincerely,
Tom Allen
If you feel strongly enough to spare a couple of minutes of your
time on Planet Earth, you can send your local MP a letter from a purpose-built website by WWF UK,
which will find your local MP’s address based on your postcode, and
even write a draft letter for you, before emailing it directly or
making it suitable for printing and posting. These MPs are waiting to
hear from you - that’s their job.
If you live in England but you’re still not convinced about this issue, you may be interested to read this article. More general information can be found at the WWF’s own site. And in millions of other places all over the world.
And if you want to find out how you can easily reduce your own
demands on the environment, it actually could not be easier, thanks to
the WWF’s One Planet Living project. Don’t feel bad for brushing it under the carpet. Feel good for doing your bit!
