A letter from Philippa Gibson, Pontgarreg, Llandysul

Dear Editor,

There was a lot in the papers last week about building flood defences - for Cardigan and for Aberaeron among other places.

This is because our local authorities know that Wales, along with the rest of the world, is facing the crisis of climate change. This change is bringing extreme weather and rising sea levels, and these problems will become worse as we continue to put greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, mainly through burning fossil fuels. The cost of such flood defences is huge, but absolutely necessary to protect us.

Global week of action

Others are seeking to protect us by a different and complementary approach - trying to reduce climate change by reducing our use of fossil fuels. This week, climate activists from Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire will be joining with others from throughout the UK and in over 30 countries around the world in a global week of action termed 'Insure our Future'.

This will involve focusing on insurance companies in both the City of London and in towns and cities across the UK. These companies enable the giant coal, oil and gas companies to start new projects to explore for and extract fuels which are causing chaos in the climate. Without insurance, these new projects cannot go ahead.

The protest actions in the last week of February will pressure all insurers to rule out covering fossil fuel expansion. Just 20 companies insure 70 per cent of world fossil fuel projects. A large number of these companies are based in the UK, mostly in the City of London, but some have branches in Wales too.

The United Nations IPCC has said that more than enough fossil fuel is already being extracted from current sources for us to use as we wean ourselves off fossil fuels quickly while developing sufficient renewable fuels.

To search for and exploit new fossil fuels is environmental madness, destroying the stable climate balance which has existed since the beginnings of human civilisation some 12,000 years ago.

Some protesters from Cardigan and from climate groups throughout West Wales will be joining protests outside insurance companies, while others will be supporting the same campaign through emails, social media, phone calls and so on.

The aim is to persuade these companies to Insure Our Future rather than ensuring our destruction.

If you would like to know more, then contact cardiganxr@protonmail.com.

Philippa Gibson