Firstly this extremely expensive and controversial infrastructure project which costs more than the controversial Third Runway at Heathrow and the constantly delayed Crossrail is a climate disaster for the country as it will put thousands of habitats across the UK at risk and also some ecosystems could be ‘permanently damaged’ as well as wildlife extinctions at a local level’ such as the Greater Manchester Wetlands, Holcroft Moors and Water Haigh Woodland park in yorkshire that estimates over 70% of the nature reserve for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust will be lost in Phase 2. It is a disastrous project that also wastes taxpayers money by costing £100 billion pounds or more to build and also goes against the Paris Climate Accord to cut emissions and Greenhouse gases by 2050 or earlier and to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. Furthermore, this is a project we need to abolish and halt construction because areas like Redcar and Cleveland and other badly connected areas would benefit from the Northern Powerhouse Rail as an alternative which the Tories promised in their December 2019 Manifesto to close the North/South divide. Furthermore, it angers me that the majority of the Labour Party support such a disastrous project that will also take years to build.

 

Secondly, the government should debate this issue in parliament because a petition started by naturalist Chris Packham has already received about 100,000 or more signatures meaning it should be up for debate in parliament because this project is not only going to affect the wildlife habitats and the national parks but also new homes being built by the railway that will eventually have to be demolished. The petition almost has 145,000 signatures so it should be up for debate otherwise people should protest like they have been doing in Euston sleeping in treehouses and underneath to raise awareness or even campaign for a referendum on whether it should be scrapped which will hopefully be a landslide victory for those who oppose HS2. In addition I think people should convince the Labour party to abolish the project and to halt the work of HS2 I think that people should occupy the construction sites and overwhelm them as well as refusing to leave and glue themselves to the construction sites similar to what Extinction Rebellion did next to Shell and Barclays which are examples of companies that fund fossil fuels.

 

I also oppose HS2 and would rather the Northern Powerhouse Rail and other upgrades to existing lines go ahead as the alternative especially for places that have been deindustrialised. I know we want to reduce the amount of petrol and diesel cars on the road but I think we need electric cars and upgrades to existing lines that wouldn’t require wildlife habitats and national parks being destroyed as well as trees otherwise these areas where HS2 is currently taking place will flood in mass numbers. Furthermore, HS2 is a waste of time because many people are working from home due to Covid-19 and also lockdowns which has helped reduce emissions and collapsed the need for HS2 and I think existing high speed rail lines should be upgraded instead of paying £100 billion or more for HS2 and causing irreversible damage to wildlife habitats causing some to even go extinct.

 

Overall HS2 needs to be cancelled now and existing lines need to be upgraded plus the proposed Northern Powerhouse rail needs to go ahead to better connect the North and also deindustrialised towns if there has to be a referendum to cancel HS2 then so be it because the project will cause more flooding as thousands of trees will be chopped down, wildlife habitats will be destroyed and some could go possibly extinct and national parks will be ruined as well as homes being built along the railway having to be abolished and this megaproject is a waste of taxpayers money costing more than £100 billion pounds which will take a long time to complete and a catastrophic project that failures to address the policies of the Paris Climate Agreement. 

 

Unless we stop this project our environment will keep on suffocating to death and it will take longer to reach the vital net zero target.