As our politicians belatedly prepare road maps out of lockdown it is critical their plans look beyond short hop journeys to a new normal and train eyes on the horizon to what must be our final destination: net zero.
We start the journey from an unrecognisable landscape. The business as usual terrain which we live on is broken and scarred from the violent economic tremors of the Coronavirus quake. High above the fractured infrastructure of modern life, the citadel of capitalism constructed by big business has also been shaken by the shockwaves of a global pandemic. Those living inside have let down the drawbridge for unconditional bailouts to rebuild the weakened walls and tilted towers of their business empires.
But we must not be cowed into compliance by their economic power. As we survey our broken lands we must resist the urge to stay put and rebuild what was there before. Instead, we must find the collective will to leave behind Business as Usual, journey beyond New Normal and set up home in a new place called Net Zero.
The journey ahead is long and challenging. Obstacles will be put in our way by Big Business as it uses all the means at its disposal to maintain the bottom line, setbacks will be encountered as, inevitably, some ideas and approaches don’t work as hoped and personal sacrifices will need to be made as we change how we consume, how we work and how we travel.
But with vision, imagination and ingenuity we can navigate a route through the hazards and move forward to the broad sunlit uplands of Net Zero.
We can inhabit a place where people and planet are prioritised over profit, where we live above the lower limits of human need and below the upper limits of planetary health, where success is measured by well being of people and the planet.
We can inhabit a place where businesses rooted in community thrive, where social enterprises, mutuals and co-operatives are supported to succeed, where a circular economy powered by a green new deal makes the most efficient use of finite natural resources.
We can inhabit a place where the air we breath is clean, where the spaces we live in are green and nature is allowed to flourish, where net emissions are zero and potentially catastrophic rises in global temperatures are limited to 1.5c.
But only if we look to the horizon and start now on the journey which will take us from broken terrain to sunlit upland.
Dad Against Climate Change 