A climate documentary fronted by the naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham will be screened in Stratford this month, with organisers hoping it prompts residents to take action locally.
The screening of the People’s Emergency Briefing has been organised by Eco7, an unfunded voluntary community group formed two years ago to promote sustainability in Forest Gate.
The 50-minute film, released in April and certificated 12A, features scientists and public figures setting out the risks that climate and nature breakdown pose to health, food supply, the economy and national security.
Local screenings form part of a campaign by the National Emergency Briefing group for a UK-wide prime-time televised briefing to the public, and the film urges viewers to write to their MP in support of it.
The local Labour MP James Asser has been invited, as have councillors and the Labour MP Uma Kumaran, who has supported Eco7’s work in the past.
MPs had been asked “so that they are fully aware of what has spurred residents into pushing for National Emergency Briefing”, said Cathy Stack, a member of Eco7.
Criticism
The campaign has its critics. Desmond Swayne, the Conservative MP for New Forest West, wrote on his blog after watching the film in Ringwood that broadcasters were “under an obligation to demonstrate ‘balance’”, and that Packham was “a long-standing and partisan campaigner”.
Swayne said the experts’ contributions had been “just accepted as fact”, with no dissenting voices.
Difference
However, Eco7 member Mary Roberts said the film “is different from the other material that people may have heard… it gives people space to engage emotionally and psychologically with the climate and nature emergencies”.
Roberts said that while the film presents “the cold facts”, it aims to encourage action rather than hopelessness, and that often “people are more positive about the situation when they come out [of the screening]”.
The film is based on a briefing held in Westminster in November 2025, at which experts put evidence to politicians.
Since then the UK has recorded its hottest summer since the series began in 1884, with a provisional mean temperature of 16.5C. Met Office scientists estimate that figure was made around 130 times more likely by human-induced climate change.
Heatwaves
Kelly Drake, a Newham Green party councillor who attended an earlier screening in Beckton in June, said: “I imagine that the summer we’re living through, the droughts, and the effects that’s having on food, will encourage more people to think about the issue.”
Cllr Drake said audiences were “encouraged to talk in small groups about the way the film makes you feel”, before turning to “the actions that we can take as a community”.
The discussion in Stratford will be facilitated by Arshan Baskaran, a Newham Green party councillor and leader of the Newham Greens.
Alison McLucas, who organised the June screening in Beckton, said: “A lot of people stayed back to talk more, and wanted to know what was going to happen next.”
Community backing
Cathy Stack said she hoped the Stratford event would encourage more environmental action in Newham.
“A lot of green solutions are more easily implemented and easier to set up when you’ve got a community behind them,” she said.
The People’s Emergency Briefing is showing from 5pm to 7pm on Saturday 19 September at:
Vicarage Lane Community Centre
Govier Close
Stratford
E15 4HW.
Tickets are free but limited, and available here.
More about Eco7 here.
