ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST DR CAT SCOTT TALKS ABOUT THE UNITED BANK OF CARBON

EVERYTHING WE CAN THINK OF DOING, WE NEED TO DO THEM ALL AND WE NEED TO DO THEM NOW

In the imposing modernist clutch of concrete tower blocks that make up the science campus of Leeds University, sits the environmental sciences department. Amidst peaceful gardens and serene water features, the almost brutalist structures feel almost alienating. In stark contrast to this, the woman I am meeting is warm, friendly, bright, youthful and bursting with hope and optimism. She is Dr Cat Scott and she is not in any way a doom-mongerer. Determined to deliver the facts with politic caution and without a hint of alarmism, she rattles through the science, breezes through all the schemes and plans, including her baby The United Bank of Carbon, whereby acres of new trees are being planted to help our gasping, cancer-ridden old planet try and breathe once more. In short, she is the very spirit of a calm, rational, scientific optimist.

Which makes the statement above all the more chilling. Three years ago, those were her words. Everything we can think of doing, we need to do them all and we need to do them now. Well, my friends, three years ago was “Now”, and three years on, we still haven’t scratched the surface of doing everything we can think of doing.