Reading Eleanor Salter’s call to voting red in order to get green in Stroud makes me weary. Stroud: the birthplace of the Extinction Rebellion; the town that elected the country’s first Green councillor; the town whose council, run jointly by Labour, the Greens and Liberal Democrats, has the most ambitious Climate Emergency plan in the country; the town in which fighting for the climate is something we do all year round, not just in election season. My standing for Parliament in my green home town in a climate election is hardly playing party politics.

On the contrary, I’m standing in Stroud on principle. Let’s examine some of those.

The Green Party has committed to net zero carbon by 2030. This is a hugely ambitious target and will mean transforming our homes, work and travel. Climate activists succeeded in getting Labour conference to pass a similarly ambitious motion, only to have their hopes dashed by a fudged manifesto that committed to carbon net zero by the 2030s, a target well below the expectations of groups such as Labour for a Green New Deal, in which Eleanor is active.

The reason for Labour’s half-hearted climate commitments is that the party responds to the demands of unions still defending the jobs of the past; the Greens, on the other hand, want to create the jobs of the future. So while our party wants to stop new road building, airport expansion and the sale of licences to extract oil and gas from the North Sea by 2024, Labour supports nuclear power and HS2. They have also, with John McDonnell, sent out confusing messages about airport expansion and the need to support regional airports, not to mention the fact that more than half of Labour MPs voted to expand Heathrow.

Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures California In this decade, humans have become ever more aware of climate change. Calls for leaders to act echo around the globe as the signs of a changing climate become ever more difficult to ignore Getty Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Athens, Greece Fierce wildfires have flared up in numerous countries. The damage being caused is unprecedented: 103 people were killed in wildfires last year in California, one of the places best prepared, best equipped to fight such blazes in the world AFP/Getty Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Redding, California Entire towns have been razed. The towns of Redding and Paradise in California were all but eliminated in the 2018 season AP Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Athens, Greece While wildfires in Greece (pictured), Australia, Indonesia and many other countries have wrought chaos to infrastructure, economies and cost lives AFP/Getty Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Carlisle, England In Britain, flooding has become commonplace. Extreme downpours in Carlisle in the winter of 2015 saw the previous record flood level being eclipsed by two feet AFP/Getty Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Hebden Bridge, England Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire has flooded repeatedly in the past decade, with the worst coming on Christmas Day 2015. Toby Smith of Climate Visuals, an organisation focused on improving how climate change is depicted in the media, says: "Extreme weather and flooding, has and will become more frequent due to climate change. An increase in the severity and distribution of press images, reports and media coverage across the nation has localised the issue. It has raised our emotions, perception and personalised the effects and hazards of climate change." Getty Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Somerset, England Out west in Somerset, floods in 2013 led to entire villages being cut off and isolated for weeks Getty Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Dumfries, Scotland "In summer 2012, intense rain flooded over 8000 properties. In 2013, storms and coastal surges combined catastrophically with elevated sea levels whilst December 2015, was the wettest month ever recorded. Major flooding events continued through the decade with the UK government declaring flooding as one of the nation's major threats in 2017," says Mr Smith of Climate Visuals Getty Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures London, England Weather has been more extreme in Britain in recent years. The 'Beast from the East' which arrived in February 2018 brought extraordinarily cold temperatures and high snowfall. Central London (pictured), where the city bustle tends to mean that snow doesn't even settle, was covered in inches of snow for day PA Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures London, England Months after the cold snap, a heatwave struck Britain, rendering the normally plush green of England's parks in Summer a parched brown for weeks AFP/Getty Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures New South Wales, Australia Worsening droughts in many countries have been disastrous for crop yields and have threatened livestock. In Australia, where a brutal drought persisted for months last year, farmers have suffered from mental health problems because of the threat to their livelihood Reuters Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Tonle Sap, Cambodia Even dedicated climate skeptic Jeremy Clarkson has come to recognise the threat of climate change after visiting the Tonle Sap lake system in Cambodia. Over a million people rely on the water of Tonle Sap for work and sustinence but, as Mr Clarkson witnessed, a drought has severley depleted the water level Carlo Frem/Amazon Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Addis Ababa, Ethiopia In reaction to these harbingers of climate obliteration, some humans have taken measures to counter the impending disaster. Ethiopia recently planted a reported 350 million trees in a single day AFP/Getty Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Morocco Morocco has undertaken the most ambitious solar power scheme in the world, recently completing a solar plant the size of San Francisco AFP/Getty Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures London, England Electric cars are taking off as a viable alternative to fossil fuel burning vehicles and major cities across the world are adding charging points to accomodate AFP/Getty Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Purmerend, The Netherlands Cities around the world are embracing cycling too, as a clean (and healthy) mode of transport. The Netherlands continues to lead the way with bikes far outnumbering people Jeroen Much/Andras Schuh Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Xiamen, China Cycling infrastructure is taking over cities the world over, in the hope of reducing society's dependency on polluting vehicles Ma Weiwei Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Chennai, India Despite positive steps being taken, humans continue to have a wildly adverse effect on the climate. There have been numerous major oil spills this decade, the most notable being the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 AFP/Getty Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures Amazon rainforest, Brazil More recently, large swathes of the Amazon rainforest were set alight by people to clear land for agriculture AFP/Getty Climate change: Decade's defining issue in pictures California This decade may have seen horrors but it has led to an understanding that the next decade must see change if human life is to continue Getty

For Greens, the change we need most urgently is a transformation of our broken political system. In 2017, it took ten times as many votes to elect a Green MP as to elect one from Labour, and our voters deserve representation in Westminster as much as any party. It is Labour’s inability to share power or work cooperatively with others and their failure to support a proportional electoral system that forces us to challenge them in seats like Stroud, where we are strong. We believe in fair voting and that power should come from the bottom up. We understand that to tackle climate change we need to rethink how power is gained and used. This is what we mean when we say “System change, not climate change”.

For me, then, the most disappointing thing about Eleanor’s article is the way it asks young people to fit their hopes into our anti-democratic two-party system. The choice must be richer and wider than red or blue, especially when both have neglected our climate and natural world for decades. Upcycling a few ideas in manifestos that do the same old trick of promising the earth and bribing people with their own money is not going to cut it at this climate election. We believe that people should be empowered, rather than giving their power to mythical figureheads who promise salvation and always disappoint.

I understand why Labour activists fear the Greens and so cudgel us with both “Vote Green get Blue” and “If you want Green, vote Red”. It is because the Green Party will always be the original and the best: not only because the environment lies at the heart of our politics, but because we are not beholden to unions or corporations. Our politics belongs to you and to the future.