Festival opens on a seriously green note (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Festival opens on a seriously green note

2:05pm Thursday 14th June 2007

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This year's Devizes Festival had an unusual opening night for a predominantly music and arts festival - a debate on climate change and global warming, supported by the town's public transport group, Kennet Passengers.

The Big Think gave festival goers an opportunity to hear the experts discuss one of the most controversial subjects of our time - and a chance to share their own thoughts and concerns.

Making up the panel were Kris Beuret OBE, director for Social Research Associates, Jason Torrance, campaigns director for Transport 2000, and Nick Hurd MP, a member of the Conservative Party's quality of life committee.

David Garmston from BBC's Points West steered the evening's discussion, starting with the premise that, since humans were causing global warming to accelerate, what action did the panel advocate?

He sought views on whether Devizes needed a by-pass, nuclear energy and asked if cheap flights should be banned.

The panel agreed that something needed to be done over the next five to ten years, and since we were all over-consuming, being dogmatic would be counter-productive.

In terms of solutions, the audience enjoyed Kris Beuret's upbeat approach, suggesting we should dispense with the hair-shirt image of low carbon, green lifestyles.

"Make going green fun and chic, but travel with awareness. I now skateboard to work," she said, "and don't heat the spare room."

She went on to propose the demolition of unstylish bus stations and instead have "cars" that went to your door.

Nick Hurd agreed. "In rural areas you need to be creative with taxis," he said.

He did not support road building but understood the difficulty. "We have to be committed to change but we need to provide sensible alternatives," he said.

Controversially, while the Conservative MP supported nuclear power, he acknowledged that nuclear waste was a seriously unresolved problem.

Mr Hurd also believed that flights were too cheap. "Flying should be an option of last resort but if you must fly, offset your carbon emissions," he said.

Jason Torrance deplored the current state of transport. "Public transport is playing catch-up whilst traffic is growing at one to two per cent a year."

Nuclear power was unnecessary and Mr Torrance opted for alternatives including locally generated power. "We need to transport energy the least distance," he said.

Straw polls revealed an audience of mixed views and to the dismay of some, around a quarter had moved from being anti-nuclear to accepting the prospect of a new generation of power stations.

The evening was also an opportunity to launch Kennet Passengers' new website, KennetandBeyond.co.uk, a compendium of greener ways to travel.

Kate Freeman

Do you have a Devizes Festival review you would like to see published on this website? If so, email it to rnightingale@newswilts.co.uk

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