the story

We have been burning large amounts of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas for almost 200 years. This has enabled us to build the modern societies that exist today. However, what we didn’t know was that along the way we have been creating the biggest problem that we have ever faced.

That problem is climate change. It goes like this: burning fossil fuels produces gases like carbon dioxide which collect in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a so-called ‘greenhouse gas’ - that which naturally exists in the atmosphere helps keep the planet warm enough for life to exist. But by massively adding to it we’re trapping too much heat in the system. This is creating more extreme weather, melting of the ice caps, floods and droughts. In turn this will cost the lives of millions, ruin the livelihoods of hundreds of millions more, severely affect animal and plant life across the globe and cost trillions of dollars. Climate change is already killing 150,000 people a year. In other words, this isn’t just a problem for future generations. It’s happening now.

Don’t just take our word for it. The vast majority of climate change experts believe that this is a global catastrophe in the making. It is also accepted as a massive danger by the bulk of the world’s Governments. In fact the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor believes it’s more dangerous than terrorism, and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has declared that climate change is the greatest long term threat we face.

So you’d think world leaders would be taking urgent action to stop this chaos. Wrong. Most of them - and in fact most of us - are carrying on as if we hadn’t seen all the danger signs. That’s why Stop Climate Chaos has been formed. We are going to build irresistible public pressure - through political action and changes to our own lifestyles - to force world leaders to act. The Governments of the world must put in place the necessary policies to switch off fossil fuels, and help us all switch to lower energy lifestyles and cleaner sources of power. And the time for them to do it is now.

But it’s not all doom and gloom! This is actually a great opportunity. By dealing with climate change we can also deliver the access to green energy that the world’s poorest people have been long demanding, add greater protection to the natural environment, increase global security and adopt smarter lifestyles - not to mention save ourselves a whole load of money in the long run. We know how to do it. All it will take is political will.

Click here to take action.

Download our Manifesto here.