In this Podcast we talk to Dr Beryl De Souza about the different ways medics engage communities in a time of climate change. Beryl is a plastic surgeon but she is also a community activist. She works closely with the Enfield Racial Equality Council (EREC) and is a passionate supporter of the work they do in the diverse community of Enfield.
In the Podcast she talks about how medics can engage over the issues of public health and climate change and explains how climate change will and has already created a health crisis.
Medics of all kinds are getting increasingly concerned at the impact that climate change is having on air pollution, heat exhaustion, on well being and mental health and on the possibility of disease spreading as well as future pandemics.
She talks about the need for agencies to work together in collaborative networks and the importance of creating relationships with communities and individuals.
Trevor Blackman works for the Edmonton School Partnership but he also wears another hat in that his is involved in Maritime Radio a steaming radio station. He used to work with local radio in the BBC.
Here Francis Sealey who also worked as a Producer in the BBC talks to Trevor about engagement in the media and how it has changed over time. When Francis started there were no audio or video cassettes let alone streaming and the change over the years has been enormous.
Both Francis and `Trevor talk about those changes and how they have affected the way we communicate in the new media.
In this Podcast we interview David McKelvey and Maggie Fay who are both medic - one a GP and another a nurse and they arrested for demonstrating outside of JP Morgan
In all six healthcare professionals were arrested after cracking eight panes of glass at investment bank JP Morgan’s offices in Canary Wharf as part of a non-violent protest.
JP Morgan is the world’s biggest funder of fossil fuels, having poured $384.2 billion into the sector since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016. The financial services giant and investment bank funded the fossil fuel industry to the tune of $61.7 billion in 2021, the same year the International Energy Agency stated that new oil, gas or coal investment must end if the world is to reach net zero by 2050.
Heatwaves are known to pose a variety of health risks, including an increased risk of stroke, and heart failure. [6] Periods of extreme heat have also been linked to negative impacts on mental health and increased suicide rates, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change looking at data from the U.S and Mexico. [7] Experts have warned that thousands of people in the UK could die as a result of the coming heatwave, with both the vulnerable as well as the fit and healthy at risk.
Here we talk about the climate crisis, the role of civil disobedience and the dysfunctional nature of our democracy that seems unable to face the health emergency that we face through climate change
Here we interview Katies Knight about her efforts and that of others to achieve a “green NHS” that has sustainability embedded in all it does. Katie is a Paediatric Emergency Medicine Consultant in the North Middlesex Hospital and has taken a lead in forming a Sustainability Group within her trust. .
Working together they try to collaborate with the Trust to ensure that the site of the Trust and its practices follow green principles in how the site is organised and in its procurement.
Katie is passionate about climate change and tells us that many of the younger generation of doctors are increasingly feeling this way as they see the emergency of climate change threatening the health of the children they work with.
We are pleased to do this interview with Katie and equally pleased that sh has also agreed to join our EnCaf Core Group.
In this interview we talk to Rebecca Nestor who is a member of the Climate psychology alliance and has become part of what is know as the Climate Cafe movement.
Rebecca talks about the growing anxieties that people are feeling about climate change and the stress and guilt they sometimes have of feeling helpless and concerned they can do nothing about it.
Climate Cafes were set up so that people could join with others to talk about their feelings and share their anxieties. They take different forms in the many locations where they are found and some develop into other forms as the cafe develops. One cafe for example turned into a book group.
But having a place where people can talk openly and freely with others is important and climate cafes fulfil a need that is growing as the impact of climate change is every more visible.
In this Podcast we talk to Andrew Samuels who is the Group CEO of WislPort and they have a team to help organisations set up a whistleblowing strategy and they also help individuals who want to whistleblow about wrong doing or unethical practices in their company or organisation
Often information about climate change, emissions, the success of offsetting and much more is not always totally transparent within local authorities. One way to address this is through creating gateways for employees to whistleblow.
In many local authorities there has been doubt about the information they give out on pollution or waste and recycling and officers are often pressured to only give out limited information or collaborate only with groups that support the ruling party of whatever colour.
Here we look at what whistleblowing is, how authorities and individuals can use it, how anonymity is ensured and who to contact should anyone feel so strongly that they see whistleblowing as their only way for the truth to be told.
In this Podcast we interview Stephen Cox about his second novel - Our Child of the Stars. Stephen uses science fiction to explore a number of crucial issue including family relationships, existential threats, personal ambition and the enduring quality of compassion.
Small-town USA, entering the Seventies. A childless couple Gene and Molly adopted a strange, wounded child of the stars they call Cory.
Molly is the main narrative voice – a passionate nurse fighting for her own extraordinary child. Cory is gentle, vibrant, excitable, endlessly curious and loving – and both joy and danger comes from his otherworldly origins.
In Our Child of Two Worlds a figure from the past brings uncomfortable truths and Gene and Molly face the terrifying loss of everything they took for granted. Humanity needs Cory’s people to return to save the Earth – but if they take Molly’s son, it will break her heart.
In this Podcast we talk to Sarah Eastwood who is the Emergency Planning Officer for the North Mid Hospital Trust.
We explore what emergency planning is around a crisis incident. However we also discuss what emergency planning means when the crisis is long term such as climate change and whether that needs a new way or working and also of thinking.
We loo at how working together in bottom up collaborative networks is important and how over time these need to be improved.
In this podcast we interview Maggie Brookes about her latest novel - Acts of Love and War: A nation torn apart by war. One woman caught in the crossfire.
1936. Civil war in Spain. A world on the brink of chaos . . .
Although this is a climate change site we like to promote the work of local authors and a world in conflict today and threatened by climate change this novel is highly relevant.
21-year-old Lucy feels content with her life in Hertfordshire - not least because she lives next door to Tom and Jamie, two very different brothers for whom she has equally great affection.
But her comfortable life is turned upside down when Tom decides he must travel to Spain to fight in the bloody Spanish Civil War. He is quickly followed by Jamie who, much to Lucy's despair, is supporting General Franco.
To the dismay of her irascible father, Lucy decides that the only way to bring her boys back safely is to travel to Spain herself to persuade them to come home.
It is a novel that looks at one of the seminal moments of the 20th century and how love expresses itself in extreme circumstances
Maggie is an ex-journalist, BBC TV producer as an historical documentary writer / producer / director and she has also been a creative writing lecturer, and is now full-time novelist and poet. Maggie was born in London and has been writing stories and poems since she was six. Her novel ‘The Prisoner’s Wife’ was published in March 2020, in the first Covid lockdown. She has published six poetry collections in the UK under her married name of Maggie Butt. Her poetry website is: www.maggiebutt.co.uk.
In this Podcast we interview Richard Gourlay who is the Director of Strategic Development in the North Mid Hospital NHS Trust.
Here he talks about the fact that the climate crisis is a health crisis and the impact this has on his own Trust in the way they plan for the future and develop their services.
Not only do they try to make their own site more sustainable but they also work with other statutory authorities and communities to tackle the problems that climate change will make worse like air pollution, the lack of green spaces and heat stress.
They know that it is the most vulnerable and marginalised communities that will suffer the most and work in partnership to reach out so that there is a greater equality of health provision.
Richard took up his current role in May 2016, having joined the hospital in February 2011 as General Manager for clinical support services and specialist medicine. From 2012 he led the hospital’s operational reconfiguration for the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Clinical Strategy. He has 20 years of acute hospital management experience, working predominantly across north London, managing medical and surgical specialties.
In this Podcast we interview Jenny Chapman who talks about her work of those of her colleagues in the London school eco network.
This is a network of schools that have got together to collaborate on addressing climate change both in creating carbon zero schools but also on integrating climate change into the school curriculum.
They are part of the Sustainable Schools Network and they host their website on “Transform Our World.”
Jenny talks about the work she and others do around issues such as food, air pollution and much more. She tells us how important integrating climate change in the whole school curriculum is and although that is beginning to happen, she says there is still a long way to go.
Jenny recommends that we look at the following websites for more information.
https://www.actionforcleanair.org.uk/campaigns/clean-air-day
https://www.transform-our-world.org/ukssn
https://www.transform-our-world.org/ukssn/london-schools-eco-network
In this Podcast we interview Geof Jukes who is a music promoter who managed Kate Bush, Bob Geldof, Underworld and a number of other notable British musicians and bands.
But recently he has turned his attention to climate change and with his colleague Robin Bath has produced a book where through illustrations and photographs children tell their story about climate change, their hopes for the future and also their deep anxiety.
This book is now available for schools and many are already using it as part of their efforts to address climate change in the classroom. The response was enormous. Schools and even Tibetan monasteries were eager to share young people’s thoughts, fears and feelings on how climate change is rapidly unfolding to their peril, in art works which are heartfelt and creative
In this Podcast we talk to Geof about this and the campaign they are now launching around the work they have done.
In this Podcast Melanie Harwood from EduCCate Global discusses how climate change can be taught in schools. EduCCate Global has set up three levels of teacher training around climate change that focusses on how to teach it in schools using a cross curriculum method.
It is an essentially team approach to teaching climate change where the emergency of climate change is embedded in the total school. It is a system that goes beyond merely teach about mitigation and adaptation but engages students in a problem solving approach to taking action to transform their environment.
EduCCate Global has schools engaged in this across the world with several hundred in the UK.
In this Podcast we interview Rudi Page a policy implementation specialist for Workforce Development, Knowledge Transfer and a skilled facilitator within politically sensitive environments at Board and senior management levels.
Here we discuss how you can create dialogue to extend engagement hard to reach groups and we look at this around the important issue of climate change and public health.
Rudi has specialised in the initiation and strategic direction of programmes and projects that influence the way that individuals and organisations access, communicate and engage with and respond to education, healthcare, cultural learning, regeneration, business support and local economic development.
Rudi devised the “Synergy Project”, a strategic communication and development tool now being used by Government Agencies, Academia, Private, Public and Not-for-profit organisations.
The Synergy Model provides institutions with a cultural insight into the needs and aspirations of diverse communities (hard to reach groups), whilst building the capacity of ethnic communities to understand the wider political and strategic context within which they are placed.
Join us in this Podcast where we interview Gregory Cohn from the Charity Seeds For Growth.
They are an amazing organisation that works with disadvantaged communities and often tenants, through a series of activities and projects to help develop well being. These include community gardens, food co-ops, support for the unemployed and they also have a criminal justice initiative in operation.
They work towards reducing our carbon footprint and sustainability which they know at a time of climate change is vital for all our communities.
They started it all in Tower Hamlets but are now planning to expand their work throughout the UK
They are a great example of how the health and well being of disadvantage communities can be improved at a time of climate change through engagement and the development of community resilience.
In this Podcast we interview Isaac Beevor from Climate Emergency UK where we explore their efforts to score the success of Local authorities climate action plans. It has already scored the efforts of Enfield Council and placed it below average.
With the help of may councillors and council officers they have developed a Climate Action Explorer that collects UK Council Climate Action Plans in a single database, alongside some data on area emissions estimates within the scope of influence of councils.
It’s being developed by Climate Emergency UK and mySociety, with input from a range of council climate officers, climate specialists, researchers, and journalists.
It assesses the success of local authorities in several areas like mitigation, adaption, community engagement, diversity and more - and does this with the use of volunteers across the UK
It is an ongoing project that will continue as the months go on as local authorities are scored as they implement their climate action plans.
In this Podcast we interview Chandra Bhatia. Of the Enfield Racial Equality Council (EREC)
Enfield Racial Equality Council’s mission is to actively promote and seek to implement a racially just, fair and equitable society which will enhance the quality of life for all who live, work and learn in the London Borough of Enfield.
We discuss how it started, what it does and how it has changed over the years as Enfield has become a much more diverse community of people.
How important is it to still fight for equality and how do the new challenges of climate change and the Borough East/West divide impact on the work that EREC does.
Join this Podcast with Anthony Fisher where we discuss the power of ideas.
Anthony is interesting as he says he has a “butterfly mind” and that the excitement of ideas is important in business, in our communities and in government.
Anthony founded Chela a company that supplies a range of specialist industrial cleaning solutions for the mass transport market but it has a research department that works to ensure that the products it produces are sustainable and with a low carbon footprint. In business he believe that having the idea about sustainability is the first step to creating a company that reflects it.
He is also a founder of Enfield poets and believe that poetry is a major way of communicating ideas and surpassing the constraints of conventional language.
Idea he believes are powerful and they can change the world.
Join us in this Podcast with Rembrandt Koppelaar where we look at the circular economy and how can be and should be applied locally. How do we move from a linear production mode where we produce, make and then waste to a circular one where we produce, make and then reuse is a central question when addressing climate change.
Rembrandt talks about how this could be done and especially how we can tackle waste without long term plans for incineration. Rembrandt is Head of the Circular Economy at Ecowise who ambition is to improve sustainability in urban ecosystems by continuing to develop smart analytics and cloud-based software solutions
Rembrandt is a senior expert in Circular Economy, Economics, Modelling, environmental material/product assessment, and techno-economic analysis. He holds a PhD degree from Imperial College London’s Centre for Environmental Policy and is experienced in leading work packages in large EU projects. He also has published two books and several articles about the future of energy, materials, society, technology, and the circular economy.
An Interview with Kristiana Heapy
In this webinar we interview Kristiana Heapy who works with a coalition of Friends of Parks groups across one London Borough.
Friend’s groups across the borough of Enfield have come together for the first time to collectively ask everyone standing in 2022’s council election to commit to protecting and enhancing Enfield’s green spaces.
The Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have highlighted how important local, easily accessible green spaces are to the mental and physical health of Enfield’s residents. Further to this, greater awareness of the climate crisis and the impact of years of destruction of the UK’s natural habitat has resulted in more people wanting to protect green existing spaces and grow precious native natural habitats.
However, there have been concerns by many volunteers in local community groups that warm words on the importance of green spaces have not been met with action and investment by councillors of all political parties and none. Green spaces are not a nice to have, they are essential to the wellbeing of all Enfield residents.
The Enfield Friends’ Collective has therefore launched the ‘Love Our Parks’ Manifesto. We ask all those standing for election to sign our manifesto and talk with Friends groups in their area about what they want
