Studying and working on climate change for years does nothing to lessen the shock of seeing the predictions play out: widespread flooding, the polar vortex, out of control wild fires – climate chaos is here today.
It is possible to draw up extensive scary lists of all the out of control and dangerous natural phenomena happening around the world right now but what is the point? If you want to check the science then these recent papers bring it home in: Scientific American, Nature and even the World Health Organisation. The main thing to realise is that it is happening and that this changes everything.
When I was still a child twenty years ago, decisive action could have averted dangerous climate change. That window was missed but the things we need to do remain the same. When your lying in the bath and you realise it has suddenly got too hot you don’t say “oh well – I might as well just leave the tap on then” you move fast so you don’t completely stew in your own juices.
The time lag for an understanding of climate science to seep into the mainstream has not applied to an active minority group who have made it their business to become expert in exactly what we should do. The practical safety measures are not rocket science. We need to, for example, mobilise armies to plant millions of trees – these will soak up carbon dioxide as well as reduce flooding. We need to cover every suitable roof in solar panels, insulate all leaky homes and take every other available action to ensure we burn less oil. Top priority is to preserve wild spaces, the ultimate natural buffer against planetary change.
The mission is planetary-scaled but we rise to it like a lunar voyage. Not only can it pull the diverse peoples of the world together at a time of mass disharmony and doubt but it offers vast arrays of new jobs which can lift millions out of poverty and help create a new kind of economy that all of us, not just financiers, are invested in. This is a great historical moment when the human species, recognising it power to change the world, takes on new responsibility as planetary stewards and adjusts its governance, philosophy, ethics and law accordingly. Nation states are required to take bold, coordinated action, united at last by our shared atmosphere and destiny.
As it becomes increasingly obvious, even against the distracting wail of the corporate media, the kinds of things we have to do to respond to dangerous, climate-activated, natural phenomena the actions of this Tory government are perceived on a par with the lackeys on the Titanic who locked the poor people below deck. Not only are they still failing to take action to protect the populace against climate change they are using tax payers’ money to sponsor their friends to frack the English countryside. This isn’t “just politics”, it is inhumane, stupid and grotesque. It is exactly the wrong thing to do.
The fact that Cameron and Osborne think they can get away with it reveals how out of touch they are. They refuse to aknowledge the simmering anger that is mobilising great swathes of humanity all around the world. They still sing to Margret Thatcher’s hymn sheet while the rest of us have moved on. Of course there is society, we are it and we know what we want – health, happiness and enough environmental stability that we might consider bringing children into the world.
Steadfastly pushing through their grim, selfish ideology of disaster capitalism while trampling on our last chances to make a better world must surely drive the long awaited lurch to the left? By running roughshod over the English countryside the tories finally show to everyone they really do not care about anything other than the concentration of wealth.
Imagine this future scenario. Years from now David and Sam Cameron head out from their town house, defended, not just by police with machine guns – as in the case of the delightful Mr Blair, but also lines of riot cops. The populace will leer and shout – “why didn’t you do anything while we still had a chance!?” David’s callous eyes, as dark as the infinity of space, will never flicker, staring straight out of his grey, sallow face. SamCam, the English Mrs Assad, will lean into his fur-lined coat and shudder, hissing through her collagen-pumped, pursed lips “we did it for the money you idiots.” They have to be stopped, we can’t let this happen.
Comments
comments
Comments are closed.