The recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC! makes for stark reading. We have just a little over 10 years left to take action and try to keep climate change below 1.5 degrees of warming . Much of the other publications recently point towards a grim future for earth and humanity even if we take action. The plus side if we take action we may have a fighting chance. Capitalism and consumption at the rate we currently do is unsustainable. Yet governments seem to continue peddling the illusion that its 'business as usual'.
I recently signed a letter organised by a former academic colleague in a letter to the Guardian newspaper together with about another 100 academics declaring support to the new environmental movement Extinction rebellion a peaceful environmental action group pursuing change through civil disobedience. As the letter states: "When a government willfully abrogates its responsibility to protect its citizens from harm and to secure the future for generations to come, it has failed in its most essential duty of stewardship. The “social contract” has been broken, and it is therefore not only our right, but our moral duty to bypass the government’s inaction and flagrant dereliction of duty, and to rebel to defend life itself."
Our governments are willfully abrogating responsibility, from blatantly ripping up of climate change treaties to putting lip service to initiatives, investing in projects that are harmful to the environment (road building and fracking for example) or as some politicians particularly on the right are prone to do - undermining and filibustering promising legislation and projects for their own material gain or on instruction of their lobby paymasters. Yet the general public looks to politicians to come up with ways of managing climate change. Often the public is misinformed about science too. Believing that science will produce inventions that will reverse global warming. Such optimism is misplaced. Science progresses slowly and technologies developed that are supposed to solve one climate issue produce other issues that only become apparent over time. IT is clear that all of us need to make changes to consumption and reduce our expectations about standards of living and consumption. Some of these may be painful, but will be even more painful in future if we do not act now. We need to start building adaptation to climate change now, not in 10 20 or 50 years.
As a species we are trapped in a psychological dead lock. Most people in developed countries view climate change as not personally relevant or a problem that will be resolved elsewhere. In addition there are abundant climate change conspiracy theories that are creating information noise and may even be maliciously designed to distract humanity from the goal of preventing an ecological collapse. Such misinformation diffused over social media targets the vulnerable and can disorient even those who are more educated. When you are looking at where this noise comes from it can be traced to big corporations and nation states spreading doubt and misinformation about climate change. The likely purpose of this is that taking action on climate will impact on profit margins and undermining climate change adaptation extends the window of opportunity corporations and governments can exploit for the gain of a relatively small group of individuals.
Meanwhile real estate in New Zealand is being bought up as the rich are preparing for the likely collapse of societies and planning an escape when social disorder and rage against corporatism explodes onto the streets. Some people might suggest this is too distopyian a vision, but considering the impact of present climate change in future, people will have reason to be angry: Food shortages, failed harvests, Brownouts, effects of hurricanes and flooding, an infrastructure that is overwhelmed by the scale of disastrous climate events, leading to migration pressures. Contrast this with the lifestyles the rich can afford, buffered in their fortresses and with the means to rebuild and escape the chaos. The question is who they will direct their anger to. Judging by the trend of xenophobic politicians blaming immigrants and othering vulnerable people within a society along lines of poverty, origin, ethnicity and sexuality/gender) there may be an increase in such divisive right-wing politics if the narrative that is loudest denies the reality of climate change and uses hate and fear as a way to distract from the impacts.
This would be a disaster for society and ultimately for the earth. This is why it is even more important now than ever to make a stand - Enough is enough. The lie of 'Business as usual' is costing us the earth. I don't know if we can collectively stave off social and ecological collapse but unless we try we are guaranteed to become a small footnote in history. Having read much of the work from recent climate theorists and philosophers, my work as a writer has recently shifted to becoming focused on climate change, in particular in relation to applying psychology and insights from social sciences to help create the change needed in the world. If any of you are in this space get in touch and comment. We can all help build momentum for campaigns to force our governments to change direction by connecting and creating a global movement demanding change.
