Climate change: We must transform our lives and values to save this burning planet. By Susanna Rustin
The case for action to tackle the climate emergency, on a scale far beyond
anything that has yet been attempted, is increasingly widely understood. Almost
three decades after the first UN climate treaty was agreed in Rio de Janeiro in
1992, and despite the commitments thrashed out among nation states at every
summit since, global carbon emissions last year rose to a record 37.1bn tonnes. In October, UN
scientists warned that within 12 years a target of 1.5C of global heating would be
out of reach. Above this level, temperature increases are predicted to cause
colossal disruption: 10 million more people displaced as a consequence of
higher sea levels; greatly increased risk of fires, drought and extreme weather
of all kinds; shrinkage of plant and insect habitats with massive effects on
agriculture as well as nature; the extinction of coral.
Thankfully, and due to
efforts by activists as well as scientists, in some parts of the world the
climate emergency is finally receiving some of the attention it deserves. Last
month’s elections to the European parliament saw Greens win nearly 10% of the seats. For a week in Britain at the
end of April, when four sites in London were occupied by Extinction Rebellion
activists, and the Swedish school striker Greta Thunberg met party leaders in
Westminster, the story dominated the national news. This was a stunning
achievement by campaigners, and appears to have had an effect.
An opinion poll last week showed the environment overtaking every
other issue apart from Brexit and health among voters’ priorities.... The Green New Deal embraced by leftwing US Democrats and
elsewhere is the best chance we have. Economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote recently
that we should think of the response to climate change as a “third world war”. It is helpful to have a historical analogy on
which to draw, when thinking about the transformation that is needed if we are
to avoid a descent into chaos and dystopia. To be paralysed by panic would be a
disaster. But there are also big differences between the situation human
civilisation faces now, and any we have ever faced before.
