Transition Athelney will be holding their AGM on Thursday 19 November at 7.30 pm at the village hall in Stoke St Gregory.

The meeting will be followed by light refreshments and a talk on climate change and migration (details below), which promises to be very interesting. I

If you just want to come to the talk, it will be starting at 8.15 pm.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND MIGRATION

Transition Athelney is pleased to announce that our guest speaker following this year’s AGM on Thursday 19 November will be Alex Randall, Project Manager of the UK Climate Change and Migration Coalition. Alex is one of the very few people in this country who specialises in the relationship between climate change and human migration.

The current refugee crisis has been at the forefront of our news recently. A number of influential voices, including USA Secretary of State John Kerry, Jean-Claude Juncker (European Commission President) and Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth CEO have warned us recently not to ignore the link between climate change and population upheavals. But to assume a simple cause-and-effect relationship between the two things would be as unwise as to dismiss it out of hand.

Alex, who works for the Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN) is unequivocal about the existence of man-made climate change. He is, however, equally clear that the majority of current climate-induced migration, whilst it involves considerable stress, suffering and danger, occurs over relatively short distances. The refugee crisis currently impinging on Europe has, he argues, mainly political roots and the climate factor is hard to pinpoint with confidence.

How the consequences of climate change play out in terms of human migration can be hard to analyse and predict. Alex Randall is well positioned to give us a sober, deeply-informed assessment of this key measure of life quality on planet Earth.

Don’t miss this important discussion – please put our 19 November (evening) meeting in your diary. The venue will be the Williams Hall, Stoke St Gregory. .