To:    Comment at the Guardian
Re:    Are politicians at long last really facing up to the challenge of climate change?
Date: Monday 30 October 06

 In response to a Guardian article by Jackie Ashley on the Stern report on climate change: "This arsenal of facts brings Brown's big green chance".
 

 
Are politicians at long last really facing up to the challenge of climate change?

Unfortunately not.  They are kicking up a lot of dust with their feet - which may impress some people - but their heads are still pretty much in the sand.

For a start, climate change is just one (major) aspect of a more general "Sustainability Problem", which we (those of us old enough to remember) were clearly warned about more than 30 years ago: an ever-increasing population of technological empowered but essentially insatiable human beings (still dominated by their animal nature) on a finite and vulnerable planet is "fundamentally " unsustainable.

Facing up to this PROBLEM would have meant questioning not just our economy and way of life, but many of the values, attitudes and aspirations which underlie them. This, no one (least of all our politicians) were prepared to do; instead we allowed ourselves to be led (Ronald Reagan and Margret Thatcher at the fore) into "collective denial ".

This, basically, is where we still are, but now struggling (kicking up a lot of dust) both to and not to face up to the situation as the effects of our increasing impact on the planet become ever more apparent and threatening.

It is very difficult recognizing a problem when we are ALL totally immersed in and dependent on it - comparable to the difficulty medieval people had recognizing that the Earth was not the centre of the universe, but orbited the Sun. It is "obvious" to us now, but at the time the opposite seemed "obvious", and moreover, everyone (except for a few crackpot astronomers) agreed.

The obvious thing that everyone (except for a few crackpot "astronomers" like me) is currently unable to see is the "inherent " non-sustainability of our economy, lifestyles and lifestyle aspirations (just look at the mags and ads, and those who serve as role models and trendsetters!). We don't want to see it, of course, because the implications are not just theoretical, but will profoundly effect our lives - and livelihoods.

Facing up to the Problem is very frightening (terrifying!) at first, because it undermines much that we are familiar with and dependent upon, but once you do, you start to see the world with different eyes and solutions begin to come into focus. Then, instead of fearing and desperately trying to avoid the radical changes that are necessary, because you can now see where you need and want to go, you will be eager to embrace them - not least because you will be doing so to preserve the planet for your own children and grandchildren. This is a "process", I hasten to add, and will take a little time, which varies from individual to individual. Lift your head out of the sand, but don't panic. Help is at hand.

My homepage: http://www.spaceship-earth.org

The article, "This arsenal of facts brings Brown's big green chance", plus all comments, including more of my own, at The Guardian.