A woman walks past a public thermometer in Nevada that reads 130 degrees F (59 degrees C)
What a year 2020 was. Despite 'pandemic influenza' being literally at the top of our Governments risk register in terms of impact severity (see page 9 of the 2017 UK National Risk Register - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/644968/UK_National_Risk_Register_2017.pdf ) the effect of successive Government's utter incompetence in failing to plan for such a pandemic are plain for all to see. As I write this blog from a tier 4 area with in excess of 50,000 new infections confirmed yesterday, the prospects for the next few months of 2021 are grim indeed, even with vaccines starting to be slowly rolled out.
And yet this disaster, with all of it's heavy toll in terms of human death and economic loss will pale into insignificance compared to the effects of the runaway climate change that is coming down the tracks as we continue to live our lives as if there is nothing at all to worry about.
A dead crocodile in Brazil - a victim of runaway forest fires
A map showing arctic sea-ice loss since the turn of the century
At the risk of sounding like a geriatric Greta Thunberg, there is plenty to worry about, and it's not just pint-sized activists saying it. Here's the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres:
At present we are heading for a disastrous scenario of a situation where the effects of runaway climate breakdown are likely to become catastrophic and irreversible. People will not give up their privileged lifestyles willingly. Lifestyles where fast throwaway fashion are accepted, where rainforest is sacrificed to ever greater intensive animal meat production, where we strive every day to acquire more and more 'stuff' and where our Governments prioritise eternal economic growth on a planet with finite resources. We have to start thinking differently. We have to start prioritising happiness over growth, sustainability instead of material acquisition, helping each other instead of helping ourselves. Government has a responsibility here. Unless they 'tell the truth' about the climate crisis (and they do know the truth) and legislate to push people into changing their lifestyles (how about a frequent flyer tax over and above one per person per year) then the future looks bleak for our children.
We need to demand more from our leaders, just at a time that they are looking to legislate against any form of dissent rather than against further carbon emissions. We need to make what changes we can in our personal lives, and be prepared to take to the streets to force the change that is needed from our Governments. To do nothing is literally sentencing our children to death. What are your new years resolutions?