A Major First for Humanity.

A few days ago I was reading a feature about the devastating heatwave in the north west of the USA and the western reaches of Canada. It appears the phenomenon was so severe that it greatly alarmed the climate scientists because, they say, the climate emergency appears to be far more advanced than previously thought. Present plans for the reduction of CO₂ emissions are, therefore, inadequate to avoid large scale catastrophe in the not-too-distant future. And, as usual, they’re saying that we must all be diligent in reducing our carbon footprints. 

 

It occurred to me that this is probably the first time in human history that the individual has been asked to take at least a measure of personal responsibility for dealing with a global issue. And it is surely ironic that we’ve reached a point in human development at which we’re the generation least likely to accept such responsibility. In developed societies – which are the ones producing the greatest CO₂ pollution – we’re the least self-sufficient of all the humans who have gone before us. 

 

Our food sits ready packed on supermarket shelves. We live in highly complex and highly structured system in which all the major aspects of our lives are dealt with by the government, the bureaucracies, the local councils, the health services, the emergency services, the police forces, the standing militaries, and so on. The only thing most of us have to do is get the best paid job we can get, and then sit back and concentrate on lifestyle. We’re simply not equipped to take personal responsibility for wider issues, and so the notion of making sacrifices is entirely alien to us.

(I remember a woman saying to me about twelve years ago: ‘I know the Arctic is melting and the polar bears are dying out, but nobody’s going to stop me flying whenever I want to.’ And I’ve heard so many farmers and tradesmen and the like over the past few years insist that climate change isn’t happening. It’s all just cyclical, they say; there’s no such thing as climate change, and claims that disaster is waiting if we don’t change our ways are just empty scare stories. Such people have no knowledge of climate science whatsoever, but they have worked in weather-affected environments for a few decades so they believe themselves to be possessors of the greater knowledge and presume the right to occupy the higher ground in the argument.)

And then, of course, there’s the biggest irony of all. Now that the individual is so preoccupied with lifestyle and the world is more run by money than it’s ever been, the watchword of the day among those who control our societies is economic growth, and economic growth is measured by the amount of money in circulation, so to increase it we condition the individual to want want want, spend spend spend, consume consume consume. What effect does that have on carbon emissions? And how do you expect people to respond to pleas from one arm of The System which run counter to the lifelong conditioning insinuated remorselessly into them by another.