An invite to spin the wheel for Take The Jump climate change game is being made by a GP from Margate and an environmental social scientist from Cliffsend today (January 1).
Dr Chris Newman, who hit the news last year with his bid to raise the climate change conversation with a weekly camp outside MP Craig Mackinlay’s Broadstairs office, has created the wheel which offers pledges to change habits and help save the planet.
Chris, who will also be wearing a specially made ‘climate resolution’ jumper will be joined by environmental social scientist Vanessa Culliford and psychiatrist Dr Lynne Jones.
Dr Chris Newman is the founder of campaign group Doctors for XR with the aim of bringing the climate change issue into the public eye.
The 41-year-old says he wants to open up the conversation and believes “public messaging on climate change is vital for us to avert the catastrophic harms that are looming.”
What’s your #ClimateResolution?
If everyone ‘Took The Jump’ this New Year we’d stop nearly 1/3 of all emissions! See @taketheJUMPnow to see what each segment means and the @c40cities -led science behind it. pic.twitter.com/Ckzhof5FHw— chris newman (@DrChrisNewman) December 30, 2022
Talking of the Take The Jump event, he said: “TakeTheJumpNow designed the six segments based on a piece of research by c40cities which is led by the mayors of the richest cities in the world.
“I am taking this out onto the streets of Thanet on New Year’s Day to see what people have planned, and if they haven’t planned much hopefully this will be a spur to consider it.
“If everyone ‘took the jump’ we’d drop emissions by almost a third and help people have some influence on a problem that often feels too big to manage.”
Vanessa added: “We are attempting to get people to think about changing their habits to save the planet from the climate crisis’ we’re in.”
Dr Newman, who moved from London to Margate 18 months ago, initially started a podcast about plastic pollution in 2018 but was then persuaded to look at wider climate change.
He said: “Then all the XR stuff kicked off in London and the fact these people were willing to do this confrontational protest and potentially sacrifice their freedom made me look into it more.
“I was one of those trusting the government to fix it but realised it wasn’t happening and was just a can being kicked down the road.”
Dr Newman, who does not have a car and no longer uses air flights, says it was this that inspired him to create Doctors for XR and get health professionals on board to ‘legitimise’ the cause.
The group has around 1,000 members, a few hundred of which are actively involved in demonstrations.
People can see the Take The Jump game at Westwood Cross from 11am to 1pm. The trio will then move to Turner Contemporary for the afternoon.
Find out more about Take The Jump here
