Source: BBC1: The Andrew Marr Show
URL: N/A
Date: 21/09/2014
Event: Emma Thompson: "we're the Martians"
Credit: BBC1: The Andrew Marr Show
People:
Andrew Marr: On Tuesday the United Nations will hold a major summit on climate change, in New York. Delegates from virtually every government in the world will be there. The actress Emma Thompson will be one of many activists marching later today in London, to urge those delegates to reach a binding agreement. She's just back from a trip to the Arctic with Greenpeace, and when we met, a couple of days ago, I began by asking: what was it about climate change that concerned her most, on that trip.
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Emma Thompson: I'll tell you exactly what it was - it's the watermarks left by the glacial mass on the sides of the valleys, down which they were once great. So you see 50, 80, 200 metres of empty space, where you can see the water - like you see the floods in Venice, you know, where the water leaves the mark - and you forget that glaciers retreat but they also lose mass. And we were in an extraordinary place - I think it was called Blubber Bay - where ten glaciers come down, and it's incredibly beautiful. But we were standing there with a glaciologist who said "I look at these and I remember when, 22 years ago, I first came here and those two glaciers met there, those two met there. And now I feel as though I'm in a strange graveyard."
Andrew Marr: And so, what do you say to those people who say "Well, a) it may not be human-caused and b) it may not be so disastrous after all - there's lots of things that will happen, the Arctic will become a place where we will find oil and gas, it'll make the world richer..."?
Emma Thompson: Well, it's a very strange position to take, because, as we know, the weather changing, all the violent storms, all of the flooding, all of the very clear and concrete data that we now have, the fact that the last IPCC report - which was thousands of scientists from around the world - has said, without a shadow of a doubt, that global warming is occurring - a) - b), it's occurring much faster than we predicted and c) it's being caused by humans, via our burning of fossil fuels.
So that, I think, is something that if you were to gainsay, I think that the moment for that denial is over, I mean, we've tipped over that point. And what's interesting is that now that the Arctic ice is melting, and we're able to get to places we couldn't get before, and drill before, we're drilling for the stuff that melted the Arctic ice in the first place, that is causing the global warming, the acidulation of the oceans, the deforestation -
Andrew Marr: The cycle is speeding -
Emma Thompson: The cycle is speeding up. And the Arctic is, as it were, the canary in the mine.
Andrew Marr: So, Emma Thompson can get on a boat and get up to the Arctic and see it - what can the rest of people do? I mean, I think there's a big march that you're involved in.
Emma Thompson: There's a big march that - you can do a lot. Go on the march - I'll be there and I'll be speaking. Inform yourselves and understand the fact that actually, even though we're up against huge difficulties, because fossil fuels are a very, very difficult thing to give up, but we now understand that we cannot afford to use them any more - it's as simple as that. The day for those fuels is over. So I want Cameron very much to step back away from coal, 'cause that's the worst one of all the lot.
Andrew Marr: So, what do you make of him? Because back when he was saying - he was up in the Arctic and going to be very green, and all that stuff. Do you think he's, sort of, lost the passion, in government?
Emma Thompson: Oh, absolutely. I mean, the Kyoto Agreement is just - it's nothing. I think, for people who've been working in this area - and I know a lot of them, for many, many years - there is a real contempt, actually, from - for people in power all around the world, I mean, Obama's been just as much a disappointment, quite frankly. Um, and - my daughter put it very well - she came with me to the Arctic and she said "It's a bit like the Earth is being attacked by Martians, only we're the Martians." And I thought: if the Earth were being attacked by Martians, we would all get together and say "What is it that we are going to do, in order to prevent the Netherlands, for instance, from flooding, or London being under water?" - whatever this threat was, we would all get together and we'd work out how to deal with it. Which is exactly what we've got to do. We just have to remember that we are the Martians.
Andrew Marr: We're the Martians.