“Hijacked by Climate Change?”

This is the controversial question asked by BBC Radio 4’s Richard Black in a programme broadcasted on Thursday evening. Links to radio programme available here and news feature here.  In the programme, Black speaks to a number of different environmental campaigners who all describe how more traditional environmental issues like nature and species conservation have been brushed aside, mainly by government authorities, in the race to address “sexy” climate change issues. One campaigner notes: “If we want to talk about climate change, we can get a meeting with the prime minister. If we want to talk about biodiversity, we can’t even get a meeting with the environment secretary.” While issues of biodiversity and species extinction are undeniably linked to climate change, and climate change remains a serious problem, it is somewhat worrying that governments and authorities feel a need to “be seen to do something” about it to the extent that it is at the expense of other otherwise serious problems.