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Ross-shire campaigner flags 'catastrophic' impact of sea-level rise as protesters unite to highlight threats to coincide with G7 summit


By Hector MacKenzie



Anne Thomas: 'Creating local, circular economies is key to both averting climate change and improving people’s quality of life.'
Anne Thomas: 'Creating local, circular economies is key to both averting climate change and improving people’s quality of life.'

Protesters in Ross-shire joined others around the country highlighting the threats of sea level rise to coincide with the G7 summit.

Though sea-level rise, loss of biodiversity, and the impacts of other catastrophic events related to climate change seem inevitable, they can be minimised if societies switch to locally-based, circular economies, activists insist.

“The twin problems of Covid 19 and Brexit have given us an insight into how vulnerable our societies are with long supply chains and much travel. A more localised, sustainable society is what we need." - Anne Thomas

“Sea-level rise would be catastrophic for Scotland, not only for low-lying coastal areas but would also cause tidal flows to advance much further up river”, said Highlands and Islands Greens’ spokesperson Anne Thomas. “Ness Islands flooding could become a twice-daily event! The recent flood defences are unlikely to be sufficient to protect coastal parts of Inverness.

“The twin problems of Covid 19 and Brexit have given us an insight into how vulnerable our societies are with long supply chains and much travel. A more localised, sustainable society is what we need.

“Creating local, circular economies is key to both averting climate change and improving people’s quality of life. That means providing public facilities, and ideally private ones too, all within a ‘pram-push’, or 15 minutes of someone’s home

“These include not just schools, nurseries and libraries but also district parks, allotments and community gardens, sports halls and leisure centres, and local office and industrial premises. All towns and villages should have networks of dedicated cycle-ways.

"Providing comprehensive local facilities minimises the need to travel, and so significantly reduces vehicle emissions.

“It also involves producing much more of the food, drink we need locally, making full use of our renewable resources and being much more energy efficient. All this will create good quality jobs.

“Sadly, the evidence we see from national and local government is not promising. For example, some £172 million of the Inverness and city region’s total budget of £315 million has been allocated to four road schemes around the city, including the notorious £40 million/4 km Eastlink. That’s £1 million for every 100 metres of road! No money at all has been allocated for rail and for active travel only as a part of road projects.

“To prevent climate change, we need sustainable solutions that have little or no climatic impact, and - at the same time - will be embraced by one and all."

Protest makes waves at Invergordon


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