Press Releases for 2004
'THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW' IS YESTERDAY?
30th May 2004Hazel Dawe, Green Party European Candidate for Kent (1), has seen the new blockbuster film on climate change, The Day After Tomorrow. Green Party leaflets stressing the serious message of the film are now being distributed in 11 European countries, including the UK (2). Hazel Dawe comments:
"It is nice of Hollywood to give us a Europe-wide Party political broadcast. There is no doubt that climate change is influencing our weather. Insurance companies are now working with environmental groups in international negotiations about climate change, having experienced many. extreme weather events in the last 20 years.
"The Green Party shares concerns with environmental commentators that the science in the film is not entirely authentic. However, the film does dramatise the risks of ignoring the effects of climate change(3). The Labour Government has managed to allow greenhouse gas emissions in the UK to rise in 3 out of the last 4 years. The European Union was 50% dependent for its energy supplies on countries outside the EU in 1999 and is this is expected to rise to 70% by 2030 (4). We need to cut down the use of fossil fuels through energy conservation and more use of renewable energy technologies which can as a combined strategy easily meet our energy needs (5).
"My one concern in watching this film is that we might be too late that The Day After Tomorrow is really yesterday because we have not cut greenhouse gas emissions enough. We may be committed to a period of extreme climate change which, whilst it may not happen in the few weeks suggested by this film, will occur quickly enough to do enormous damage to many species, to agriculture and to low-lying areas of many countries. Let's hope I'm wrong. As another disaster movie put it, perhaps thinking of our major international political leaders: "There is still time, brother."(6) ENDS c317 words
FURTHER INFORMATION: Hazel Dawe on 01233 645167 or 07960 956272. Contact address: 10 Hillbrow Road, Ashford, Kent TN23 4QH. Local website: www.eastkent-greenparty.org.uk Hazel Dawe is a Senior Lecturer in Law at London Metropolitan University.
Notes: 1. Hazel Dawe is one of 10 candidates on the Green Party list for the South East Region's European constituency. Other information on these elections can be found at www.greenparty.org.uk/southeast and on the website of the South East's Green MEP, Caroline Lucas at www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk Published and promoted by Susan Miles, on behalf of the South East Confederation of Green Parties, both at 3 Copse Cottages, Shillingford Road, Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 8LQ.
2. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Co-Leader of the Greens in European Parliament said in a press release: "Europeans needs to see this film to understand the potential consequences of climate change. The film's events are fictional and dramatised, but its message is clear: if we do not deal with climate change now we are gambling - not only with our future, but with the future of the planet."
3. Zac Goldsmith, editor of the Ecologist magazine said in his Evening Standard review of the film: "The costs of change are negligible. The costs of not changing are almost incalculable. That way we can ensure The Day After Tomorrow remains just a piece of Hollywood fiction." Thursday 20th May, 2004.
4. European Commission Green Paper on Energy, 1999. See also Trade, Climate Change and the Euro Europe section of this website: www.eastkent-greenparty.org.uk
5. Godfrey Boyle ed. Renewable Energy: power for a sustainable future (Open University & Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 2004). 6. On the Beach 1959. Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire waiting for the final effects of a global nuclear holocaust in Australia. FURTHER INFORMATION: Hazel Dawe on 01233 645167 or 07960 956272. Contact address: 10 Hillbrow Road, Ashford, Kent TN23 4QH. Local website: www.eastkent-greenparty.org.uk Hazel Dawe is a Senior Lecturer in Law at London Metropolitan University.
Notes: 1. Hazel Dawe is one of 10 candidates on the Green Party list for the South East Region's European constituency. Other information on these elections can be found at www.greenparty.org.uk/southeast and on the website of the South East's Green MEP, Caroline Lucas at www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk Published and promoted by Susan Miles, on behalf of the South East Confederation of Green Parties, both at 3 Copse Cottages, Shillingford Road, Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 8LQ.
2. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Co-Leader of the Greens in European Parliament said in a press release: "Europeans needs to see this film to understand the potential consequences of climate change. The film's events are fictional and dramatised, but its message is clear: if we do not deal with climate change now we are gambling - not only with our future, but with the future of the planet."
3. Zac Goldsmith, editor of the Ecologist magazine said in his Evening Standard review of the film: "The costs of change are negligible. The costs of not changing are almost incalculable. That way we can ensure The Day After Tomorrow remains just a piece of Hollywood fiction." Thursday 20th May, 2004.
4. European Commission Green Paper on Energy, 1999. See also Trade, Climate Change and the Euro Europe section of this website: www.eastkent-greenparty.org.uk
5. Godfrey Boyle ed. Renewable Energy: power for a sustainable future (Open University & Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 2004). 6. On the Beach 1959. Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire waiting for the final effects of a global nuclear holocaust in Australia.
