Caroline Lucas speaks clearly re. Irma & Climate Change (in Parliament & the Independent)

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/hurricane-irma-climate-change-caribbean-caroline-lucas-house-of-commons-green-energy-a7935106.html

... “Gaston Browne, the leader of Antigua and Barbuda, is talking about climate change today. Will the Minister reassure the House that we will not have to wait for a hurricane to hit the UK before we have the policies we need from this Government to tackle climate breakdown? Without that, we will not see the climate leadership that his Government like to claim in theory being shown in practice.”...

... Because the truth is that the Government doesn’t want to admit that its reckless attitude toward climate change has real effects. The most powerful people in the UK right now don’t want to acknowledge that our failure to sufficiently cut climate changing emissions contributes to sea levels rising, and oceans becoming warmer. They don’t want to face up to the fact that warmer oceans and higher sea levels make storms like Irma even more devastating, and more frequent.

Gaston Browne put it perfectly on the radio this morning when he said: “The science is clear. Climate change is real – in the Caribbean we are living with the consequences of climate change. It is unfortunate that there are some who see it differently.”

I hope that Minsters heard him. Because when they cut support to solar energy, plough ahead with fracking or effectively ban onshore wind farms, they might comfort some of their backbenchers and the more right-wing sections of the press – but in doing so they condemn people across the world to suffering the worst effects of climate breakdown...