A mother whose son has suffered two seizures during the heatwave has urged incoming prime minister Andy Burnham to protect the country’s children from the climate crisis.
Becky Ward, 42 from Essex, told The Independent she has lost sleep trying to keep her two children, Alex, 11, and Levy, 8, cool. She is a full-time carer to her youngest, who has epilepsy and cerebral palsy and whose body struggles to regulate heat.
“His body has been really struggling with it, and as a result, in the big heatwave, he had two seizures at night,” she said. “The biggest thing for me is I need to wake up constantly through the night to check his body temperature.”
Ms Ward, co-founder of the Mothers Rise Up climate change movement, has set up a petition signed by thousands of parents including Paloma Faith, calling on Mr Burnham to meet with and listen to parents concerned by the record-breaking temperatures of the recent heatwaves.
“Mothers are terrified,” Ms Ward said. “I’m really worried that this [warming] is happening faster than climate scientists ever predicted, and the heatwaves are more intense than ever predicted.”
The UK is currently in the midst of its third heatwave of the year. Temperatures have exceeded 30C for 12 days in a row in parts of the country since the start of July, after England marked its warmest June on record. Public infrastructure struggled in the heat and rare red weather warnings were put in place.
Seeking out desperate measures to cool down her house, built in the 1960s, Ms Ward bought a portable air conditioner unit for £325 for her son’s room to try to stabilise his temperature overnight.
“The problem is it didn’t work. It didn’t cool the room down. It wasn’t strong enough,” she said. “I feel like I haven’t slept for months.”
The petition calls on Mr Burnham to adapt homes, schools and public infrastructure in line with recommendations from the Climate Change Committee’s A Well-Adapted UK report, invest more in affordable and renewable energy, and oppose new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.
Labour MPs, including Mr Burnham, have faced increased pressure from the energy industry to ramp up North Sea oil production after energy secretary Ed Miliband showed reticence against new drilling.
Climate experts have supported the community efforts of Mothers Rise Up and urged the government to do more to support parents and young children as the climate crisis grows more extreme.
Ms Ward told The Independent that Mothers Rise Up saw hundreds of new members after the two latest heatwaves, bringing the campaign group up to more than 500 members. They plan to hand deliver and post personalised, heartfelt letters to 10 Downing Street at the end of August as part of their campaign for change.
“[Mr Burnham] surely can’t ignore hundreds of letters dropping in from mothers saying we’re so scared and terrified for our children. For the impact now and for their future.”
The Independent has read letters soon to be sent to 10 Downing Street, and dozens of testimonies from mothers part of the movement, detailing how powerless they feel in the battle against climate change.
A testimony from 37-year-old Alexandra from Manchester confessed that her 10 month old daughter’s room reached 31C at the height of the most recent heatwave.
“I was sat breastfeeding her in the middle of the night and burst into tears over fearing for the future as her cheeks flushed bright read and she was stuck to be like glue. because of us both sweating in the heat.”
A letter from Leah Cooper, mum-of-two, read: “I have been trying to put on a brave face for my two children, but I am so worried for their future.”
Professor Mark Pelling, of University College London’s Department for Risk and Disaster Reduction, has said that tackling the rising temperatures requires the cooperation of government and local government with grassroots efforts such as Mothers Rise Up.
“It’s really got to be driven locally,” he said. “In Burnham’s language, it would be part of the sort of localisation mission.
”There’s local mothers, there’s local government coming together to sort out how we can adapt to heat in our houses and the schools that we have in our patch. It would seem it is really enabling, if you want to make it positive, Andy Burnham to use adaptation to climate change to get to lots of thorny issues like housing justice and localism.”
Mel Evans, head of climate for Greenpeace UK, urged Mr Burnham to listen to Mothers Rise Up as concerns for climate change worsen.
“Today’s children are already at risk from floods, heatwaves and wildfires, and if we continue burning fossils fuels at the current rate, our kids will see decades of worsening heat, drought and floods,” she said.
“As a parent I really hope Andy Burnham will listen to Mothers Rise Up, pay attention to the government’s own appointed experts on how to help our communities adapt to extreme weather, and stop the climate emergency getting worse. To protect our kids from the frightening future that threatens them we need our leaders to stop fossil fuel companies pouring fuel on the fire.”
A government spokesperson said: “This government has committed to strengthen our approach to climate adaptation, and to build our resilience to our changing climate. “
“We are already taking action to help safeguard people, livelihoods and our natural environment by investing in clean power, ensuring new residential buildings are designed to minimise unwanted heat from the sun and launching the Local Authority Climate Service which provides local authorities with easy access to tailored information to support adaptation planning.
“During extreme heat, people should pay attention to the latest alerts and guidance issued for their area by UKHSA.”
The Independent has approached Andy Burnham for comment.
