Environmental Strategy

Guest speaker at the club this week was Cat Payne an Audit Officer looking at Climate Change issues through Resource Efficient Solutions for Fife Council.  

There are climate change sceptics but Cat warned that climate change is real and we are already experiencing its effects. Storm Angus highlighted the critical infrastructure in the U.K. Cat pointed out that Fife with a coastline on three sides is very vulnerable to the consequences of climate change.

 Amongst a battery of sounds bites that would have you believe that we are all doomed. She said:- The jet stream cannot be modelled more than 14 days in advance. It is hard to predict whether lots of rain, lots of cold, lots of heat. Sea level rise could be greater than predicted. Antarctic melt is not included from current projections. A lot of the scientific community now believe that we are passed the point of no return. 

Solutions? Wind turbines, electric cars etc are only mitigation. We need to adapt to cope with problems. We are at the point where we should be removing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. 

Future climate is dependent on the emissions of people who have yet to be born using technologies not yet invented. 

Adaptation best practice:-incorporating projected impacts from climate change into the planning, engineering, construction, and renovation. We need to plan ahead, build in adaptation - Street trees, shelter belts, flood protection, community growing areas, reforestation, reinforcing reservoir impoundment. The end result is encouraging. 

 Cat recommended reading New York City adaptation plan