Hilary Myers, Parliamentary Spokesperson for the Lib Dems in Calder Valley was the guest speaker at a special meeting of local branch members in Hebden Bridge on 16 July 2009. Her talk was entitled “Conservation or Survival?” and explored the developing history of environmentalism over the last forty years. With a particular focus on the topic of Renewable Energy, she drew attention to the fact that the UK is considered to have some of the best natural resources in Europe for the generation of renewable energy but nevertheless produces very little. Out of 27 countries in the EU, Britain lies in 25th place with less than 2% of our total energy requirement being generated from wind, tide and water power.
The meeting went on to discuss the Liberal Democrat party’s opposition to nuclear power and the local controversy over the siting of wind turbines. They considered the hard environmental choices that would have to be made if the area is to contribute to challenging targets for the production of renewable energy. One possibility is to develop hydro power, the original basis for the valley’s industrial development. Hilary went on to say “Many biodiversity experts now consider global warming to be the greatest extinction threat facing the planet. With just two or three degrees of further warming, up to half of all species could be consigned to oblivion. When it comes to the environment we have to get things into proportion.” She showed the audience a map of the British Isles as it is predicted to look following those same two to three degrees of global warming and the consequent melting of the polar ice caps. “Much of the country will just disappear under water”, she explained.
