Online debate around climate change can quickly become heated and polarised. But Hanwell resident, community volunteer and Green Party member Dominic Kirkbride believes bringing people together face-to-face offers a more constructive way to discuss the challenges ahead.
After attending a screening of the People’s Emergency Briefing in Ealing, he was inspired to organise his own event at the William Hobbayne Centre in Hanwell on 19 September 2026.
In this opinion piece, he explains why the experience — and the hostile reaction he encountered while promoting the event on social media — convinced him of the value of discussing difficult issues together in person.
“I recently saw the People’s Emergency Briefing at a church hall in Ealing, surrounded by about 40 other people I’d never met. It’s a documentary that’s been made specifically to be shown in local communities, covering the National Emergency Briefing given to members of Parliament in November 2025.
“The briefing set out the implications of climate and nature breakdown for health, food systems, national security and the economy. Although everybody there had clearly come because they were already somewhat interested in hearing about the human-made climate crisis, the immediacy of the threat to our way of life took everybody by surprise. It locked us in a common purpose that instantly dissolved the polite distance Londoners default to, and in the discussion part of the briefing, I actually felt a sense of hope when everybody there was moved to commit to at least one action for the climate.
“That sense of hope inspired me to host my own screening of the briefing, on Saturday 19th September at the William Hobbayne Centre in Hanwell—free to attend (link below).
“The uptake has been marvellous; about 80% of the free tickets have been taken with (at the time of writing) a week still to go. In organising this screening, one thing has been the biggest eye-opener: the comments online. I publicised the event on the local Facebook groups, hoping to attract attendees from all over the community, which worked—as you can see from the seats booked—but I also gained the ire of some of the strangest reactions I have come across online ever.
“From cries of ‘stop the boats and the rapists’ to being labelled ‘Putin’s useful idiots’, a community event centred on coming together to face the biggest existential threat humanity has ever known has become a magnet for extreme political commentary. Almost all the comments exhibit classic signs of far-right influence, and most of them also seem to want to direct the issue towards immigration.
“One person even took the trouble to post the same comment across the multiple posts I made in different groups. It’s really alarming to see how much malice total strangers can hold for someone they’ve never met, and something that has the aim of making a positive difference. What’s even more worrying is how much time I have spent replying to these people, trying to win the war of public opinion in the comments section. If I’m honest, I could have used the time better to reach out to more people in different ways—not everybody uses social media—but I became totally distracted by trying to prove these naysayers wrong.
“On reflection, this has shown me the importance of the briefing itself: coming together in real life, experiencing the same confronting information at the same time, and asking ourselves ‘what should we do about this?’ is a better way to spend our time than raging online against people who’s algorithms are creating and reinforcing their opinions in a vicious, ever-closing circle.
“The film itself packages all the problems that the human-made climate crisis brings in a very neat, digestible format. There’s even some humour from the Gogglebox-style audience reactions in the documentary to take the edge off (which is welcome, given the topic). Come along and experience the briefing in person—it’s so much more meaningful when experienced together.”
Free tickets for the briefing can be booked here: https://buytickets.at/hanwellguerrillagardeners/2377347
