On Saturday 30th May, Ipswich Umbrella screened The People’s Emergency Briefing (2026) at the University of Suffolk. It was a successful event with some 69 people in attendance. The film itself was effectively a recording of the National Emergency Briefing that took place in November last year, a kind of governmental conference in which experts in various sectors explained the terrible risks (and thin silver linings) offered by climate change. Interspersed with this footage were sections with Chris Packham directly addressing the audience, as well as Googlebox-like bits with various British celebrities reacting to the recorded footage of the conference.
As an elder socialist declared at the end of our screening, “What they didn’t mention was capitalism!” There were sensible solutions offered in terms of investing in green energy production, but less in terms of the need for systematic change. The film does, however, succeed through having hugely likeable British celebrities like Adam Buxton, Jennifer Sanders and Konnie Huq register the severity of the climate and ecological crises.
The event was beautifully facilitated by two of our members, with others of us stewarding and taking tickets. I got to network with a member of Greener Ipswich so that alone made the event worthwhile for us.
We are hosting a follow-up event from 2:00 to 4:00pm on Saturday 6th June to further chat about the film, writing letters to ask it to be screened on the BBC, and to eat cake. Please come along even if you didn’t get the chance to watch the film yet.
Ipswich Umbrella 
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