Thread by @Eco_melon

I've been staring at this tweet wondering how can it be that the BBC's environment team are afraid of saying the 'C word'?👇 1/n

https://twitter.com/RHarrabin/status/1088753241561669632

@RHarrabin @MattMcGrathBBC @davidshukmanbbc @GeorgeMonbiot @Revkin @tomheapmedia @DoctorVive @JKSteinberger @jonathanwatts

Maybe it's only a CRISIS if it's about Health - Oh look at that!
“Climate change is the biggest global-health threat of the 21st century” - UCL-Lancet Commission
ucl.ac.uk/news/2009/may/… 2/n

Maybe instead it has to be human rights - GOSH!

“Climate change is the greatest threat to human rights in the 21st century”- Mary Robinson Former UN High Commissioner For Human Rights
blog.ted.com/leaders-with-a… 3/n

Oh I know, maybe it only a CRISIS if its about Development-

“Climate change is the single greatest threat to sustainable development.” - Ban Ki Moon, Former UN Secretary General unric.org/en/latest-un-b… 4/n

Security then? That must make it a CRISIS?

“Climate change is the greatest security threat of the 21st century,”
Maj Gen Munir Muniruzzaman, chairman of the Global Military Advisory Council on climate change
theguardian.com/environment/20… 5/n

So we only care about an economic CRISIS is that it?

"Climate change is a result of the greatest market failure the world has seen” Sir Nicholas Stern
theguardian.com/environment/20…

6/n

Well I guess as an environmental team sticking a very narrow interpretation of your brief it would have to be an environmental CRISIS.

“Climate change is the biggest threat wildlife will face this century” National Wildlife Federation
nwf.org/~/media/PDFs/G…

7/n

On reflection are any of those enough to use the 'C word'?

Do you think Sir David may have a point?

"Right now, we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale. Our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate change.”- Sir David Attenborough bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…

8/n

Let's take a different approach what do climate scientists say themselves are they prepared to say the 'C word?'. Let's ask them shall we?

9/n

"Sea level is rising much faster and Arctic sea ice cover shrinking more rapidly than we previously expected. Unfortunately, the data now show us that we have underestimated the climate crisis in the past." @rahmstorf Professor of Physics of the the Oceans @PIK_Climate 10/n

“The window of opportunity to avert a humanitarian, environmental and climate crisis is rapidly closing” Prof Molly Jahn of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

11/n

“I do not even call it ‘climate change’ — it is a global climate crisis” Prof. Jonathan Patz, Director Global Health Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison

12/n

“The global climate crisis is now an emergency”, John S. Odell, Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California

13/n

“This climate crisis was anticipated by government and by industry decades ago and yet the government pursued this fossil fuel policy that it knew to be dangerous."- Prof. Mary Wood, Law professor at the University of Oregon

14/n

"The human race has a climate crisis, Paris has delivered a plan, next begins the hard bit: action." @rpallanuk, Professor of Climate Science, University of Reading

15/n

“We are at turning point; my generation fully documented the climate crisis, now it’s the current generation’s job to get cracking on solution”- @climate_ice Professor in glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland

“But we are facing an ongoing climate crisis, and we cannot afford to lose time in understanding how the Earth system is changing and how to adapt to the inevitable and prevent the even worse.” Richard Seager, Research Professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

“Yet political leaders, corporations, civil society, and the general public for the most part are acting as if we do have plenty of time, not yet aware of the urgency of the climate crisis” Prof. V. Ramanathan, Prof. M. L. Molina, and D. Zaelke 18/n

“One challenge of the ongoing global climate crisis is to convey the urgency of our collective predicament and the need for decisive action.” @richardhorton1, Editor in Chief of the Lancet

“Countries recognize the need for global collaboration to deal with the global climate crisis” - @jrockstrom , Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

20/n

“We need to be bold and imaginative in encouraging the direct participation of citizens in dealing with the climate crisis,” - @JacquieMcGlade, Gresham Professor in Environment UCL 21/n

“We have a PLANETARY CLIMATE CRISIS that requires urgent change to our energy and carbon pathway to avoid dangerous consequences for young people and other life on Earth.” Hansen et al.
journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…

22/n

So please @RHarrabin, @davidshukmanbbc , @MattMcGrathBBC and all of the @BBCNews team don't fail us, TELL THE TRUTH we are in a CRISIS and for goodness sake please use the 'C WORD!' 23/23