A question and answer fundraiser to raise awareness on climate change, was held at Sheldon School in Chippenham on Monday (9th) night.

The chairman for the evening was Liberal Democrat councillor for Chippenham, Helen Belcher, with panelists: Matt Whealdon, Director of Strategies and Compliance at Wessex Water, Mel Moden of Extinction Rebellion and Caroline Hickman, Climate Psychology Alliance.

The evening took the format of BBC Question Time, with members of the panel stating their positions on climate change and then taking questions from the audience.

Helen said, "The aim of the evening is to raise awareness around the climate crisis and to keep climate change on the agenda for everyone. We need people to realise that this is a really big threat to humanity."

She added: " People seem to be more involved with the immediate concerns of Coronavirus than the fact that climate change will have a greater impact on us and it's not so far away."

"We need to realise there are consequences to what we do now on the future of our world," Said Matt. "Plastic, for example was seen as a wonder product initially, but now we know that it doesn't break down and will stay with us for ever and it's now in our food chain more and more."

XR representative, Mel, said: "The whole crisis is terrifying, I'm not surprised people want to block it out. We need a lot more cooperation from everyone. No one individual is to blame. We live in a toxic society and we make toxic decisions."

Caroline, said: "For decades people have said don't frighten people with issues on climate change and it hasn't got us anywhere. We need to face it head on."

Ed Sawyer, who organises events the Lib Dems, Said: "We did this as there are not really enough events that put an audience in front of a panel and engage them on such emotive issues."