Prior to the anticipated (by those paying attention)
pandemic – the main by-line for those resisting urgently tackling the climate emergency
was that it couldn’t be done. It couldn’t be done, they said, in the timescale
called for by those taking the planet’s pulse.
But now we know that is not true.
We await statistics regarding the effect several
months of the cleanest air the planet has known in decades has had on the world.
Many suspect that despite the death toll of covid-19, the human race may be
quids-in. Plus –
Conservative administrations that have starved the UK health service of cash for over a decade and
failed to follow the advice of The WHO or ex-President Obama – or any other informed
body or intelligent person - are shown to be the money-grubbing, dishonest morons
that they are and whether we do anything about that is up to us.
But back to the planet.
‘CAN’T BE DONE’ has been the easy soundbite trotted
out by the naysayers when it comes to the imminent measures needed to deal with
climate catastrophe and environmental wrecking. Yes, isn’t it awful that the
sea creatures are dying with plastics in their gut because we can’t stop
consuming/wasting. Yes isn’t it awful that according to PHE 36,000 UK citizens
died prematurely in 2019 due to pollution – many of them young and it never
made news headlines. It can be done, it has been done and if it had begun years ago rather than as a panic action as part of a crisis the devastation to the economy need not have been so awful.
And
more importantly what is ‘The Economy’ for if not to benefit people. So if The
Economy is based on buying poisonous crap we do not need or flying abroad three
times per year or cruising around the oceans on floating giant petri dishes and
The Economy is killing us and the planet then The Economy cannot be held up as
an entity in itself that has rights.
It turns out, if we want something badly enough we are
prepared to do extraordinary things and forego many things we thought we
couldn’t live without.
Once we get past the nonsense of this is like the war (it isn’t) and we are all in this together (we are not-
it’s clearly been a whole lot easier experience for those with resources than
those without) can’t is no longer an
argument.
Despite missing my family horribly, I will be very
sorry indeed to see the end of shutdown if it really does mean a return to
‘normal’. Cessation of mad consumption is buying our
children a few more years on the planet and wildlife a few more years before we
make much of it extinct and many essential habitats a few more years before
they are beyond the point of irreversible destruction. The big question is - are we going to return to our hideous, planet-destroying ways
as soon as lockdown is lifted or are we going to value the blessings we have
had time to count?
As for the virus itself, I wrote at the start that
we needed perspective. We still do. Somewhere between the nonsense and
patronising crap of cheap green badges for frontline staff and the panic porn some
elements of the media have wallowed in from the start, we desperately need perspective.
Firstly as I said in blog 339, lots of other things
kill us more efficiently every single year – like pollution and poverty. The
WHO predicts that as early as 2030 an additional ¼ million deaths could occur
from heat, malaria and malnutrition. Already – according to The World Health
Organisation - as many as 4.6 million
people per year die from the direct effects of air pollution.
Here in Scotland, which is less densely populated
than other parts of the UK, pollution is still a problem. Small cities like
Perth and Dundee regularly exceed EU air pollution targets and while Edinburgh
managed to stay just below dangerous levels up until 2015 this could be because
the monitoring site wasn’t actually in the city centre. And London is a regular
toxic hell.
The right-wing in the UK and US are whipping up the
blame game against China. And while we should all worry about the ‘wet markets’
where the disease appears to have started, might we take a nervous glance over our
own shoulders at the increase in factory farming where the over-crowded, cruel,
stressed and unnatural conditions are just begging for a similar outbreak?
And very importantly, as I said in blog 336, covid-19
is merely the “tap on the shoulder” if we do not change our ways. Will we be
ready next time or will we still have no nationwide strategy and will we still
be staggering along with an under-funded health service and will some still be howling Rule Britannia and kicking out
EU workers and celebrating not co-operating with our neighbours while our
government proves it cannot organise a piss up in a brewery? Will we still have
Boris Johnson the buffoon, the liar, the philanderer, the absentee PM when what
we need is leadership, guidance and a PLAN?
Many want a quick return to their habitual way of
living. But we need different, better habits.