Crises: The End of the End

I’ve found it’s easy, if you try, to imagine an apocalyptic vision of a broken civilisation and a futile fight for the future of our species on a planet wrecked by human activity. Scenarios for how the climate and ecological crises unfold and the desperate actions taken for survival are multitudinous and compelling. The plethora of stories foretelling the ‘end of the world’ and the popularity of the genre in both book and film are evidence of our morbid fascination with death and destruction.

In contrast, it’s much harder to write a bestseller or produce a blockbuster from imagining life in a blissful utopia where stewardship of the planet and people’s well being are the measures of success in a just society where kindness, collaboration and community are celebrated.

A story in which the heroes arrest climate change and restore ecological balance by diligently working together to develop green technologies that decarbonise dirty power grids, roll out charging points to electrify pollution choked road networks and plant trees to reforest denuded landscapes will not have book lovers clamouring for signed copies or cinema go-ers flocking to multiplexes.

A story in which deeper happiness is found through meaningful relationships with people and reconnecting with nature rather than living for fleeting highs from consuming stuff or plugging into electronic gadgets will not be a top seller on Amazon or go viral on social media.

A story in which conflict is consigned to history and a new global accord on stewardship and well being has eliminated injustices and insecurities so people across the globe live in dignity and harmony will not provide sensational newspaper headlines or fill relentless television news cycles.

In storytelling, I’ve realised, idyll is dull, happiness is humdrum. To capture an audience, jeopardy must exist at the heart of a story. Disaster must loom and the possibility of failure must exist. In the end though, if a story is to win mass appeal, the heroes must ultimately prevail.

The fight for the future of our planet has all the ingredients of a blockbuster smash hit…

The two headed monster of climate change and ecological collapse threatening humanity offers a scary central premise. Fear from impending catastrophe can be aroused whilst hope is fostered that solutions tantalisingly within reach will be grasped by reluctant heroes. Tension can be built in a race against time set to a backdrop of increasingly extreme life-threatening weather events: the crises countdown clock must be stopped before tipping points are reached and the planet’s life supporting systems dramatically implode in a climactic maelstrom of fire and flood.

Disaster looms but the band of underdog heroes (a mix of boffins resolutely developing scientific solutions to combat the crises, rescuers bravely risking their own lives to save the lives of others in the midst of climate turmoil, and campaigners taking on the might of the Empire by winning arguments, opening eyes and changing minds) offer hope for a happy ending.

Conflict between the story’s antagonists and protagonists adds to the narrative as young revolutionaries with their very existence at stake rise up against an old established order, either unwilling or unable to look beyond their own short-term interest, determined to maintain the status quo.

A monolithic Empire of Big Business controls the levers of a system built to extract maximum profit for shareholders. The most prominent figures ferment a cult of wealth worship that cynically wields power and influence to subjugate the masses under their doctrine. Their actions and distractions are designed purely to perpetuate the pursuit of profit and protect their privilege.

The self proclaimed Elites of the Big Business Empire are too greedy and too arrogant to recognise the true cost of their unbridled wealth accumulation but fanatical faith in their dogma is placing in peril the existence of the human race and many other species which make up the intricate evolutionary web. Their fixation on profit has altered the delicate balance of natural life support systems. Pestilence, fire, drought, storm and flood ravage the planet. For many, life has become a daily struggle for survival.

Yet, despite the devastation already caused by emissions bellowing from factory chimneys and spewing from combustion engines, the established order is resisting change and constantly manoeuvring to preserve business as usual. Dire warnings of the consequences of continuing to faithfully follow their profit first doctrine are disregarded. Extraction of the planet’s resources and exploitation of people continues unabated. Under their control, humanity is speeding towards a precipice.

Wealth and power has been concentrated in the hands of a few determined to keep fossil fuels burning and wheels of Big Business turning. If anything, the warnings serve only to ratchet up profit first activity as the wealthiest few close ranks to protect their privilege and mitigate the risks to their order.

A Council of Elites congregates for regular communal worship at exclusive country clubs to which access is only granted to the most devout accumulators of wealth. Only those with a reference from an Offshore Bank verifying obscene wealth and a curriculum vitae showcasing moral ambiguity in the pursuit of profit are allowed to join the congregation as regular worshippers.

Strategies to maximise profit through maximum extraction of resources and maximum exploitation of people are discussed on landscaped terraces overlooking manicured golf courses by tanned white middle-aged men wearing the uniform of the executive class: open-necked designer polo shirt, tailored slacks held in place below a slight paunch by a soft calfskin leather belt and Italian made soft suede loafers. Strategy sessions are interspersed with rounds of golf on which networks of wealth and privilege are reinforced.

Invitations are extended only to those who can further their cause. Media and politics are recognised as key levers in executing the cynically crafted Maximise strategy. Editors and politicians are bestowed with privilege for the duration of their stay and offered morsels of power, influence and wealth to spread the Maximise message. Making the subjugated majority complicit in the evangelical pursuit of profit is a central pillar of the Elite’s strategy to Maximise Profit through Maximum Extraction and Maximum Exploitation.

A veneer of democracy is maintained through cosmetic electoral processes. An illusion of individual choice and majority rule is fronted by unprincipled politicians paid from loose change jangling in the deep pockets of the Elite and backed by mainstream media owned by the overlords of the extractive, exploitative economic system. The Elites use their media minions and political puppets to manipulate electoral outcomes to achieve their ultimate end goal: the complicity of a transfixed majority in their unencumbered accumulation of wealth.

Politicians and Editors are well remunerated for their role in spinning the deception. In return, they are expected to use their public platform to do the Elite’s bidding. They are given three clear objectives, all designed to support the Maximise strategy:

1. Sow divisions in society so the majority turn against each other rather than unite against the privilege of the Elite;

2. Maintain a machinery of misinformation designed to mislead, confuse and undermine any challenges to the established order;

3. Propagate the myth of materialism to shackle the majority in chains of debt by strengthening a belief that buying stuff is the fount of happiness.

Loyalty to the Elite and their profit first doctrine is rewarded with lavish financial bonuses, expensive material gifts and baubles of status.

Maximisation has worked. The Elite have accumulated 99% of the wealth created by a poor deluded majority stoking the engines of the system designed to increase the wealth of a few by maximising profit through maximising extraction and maximising exploitation. The Majority are enfeebled, deeply divided by race, nationality, religious belief, class, gender and age and bound to a system hurtling towards oblivion. All looks lost.

However, young revolutionaries, not yet ensnared in the system, are joining together to battle an information war.

Separately, their fights against inequalities embedded and injustices perpetrated by the Empire have been easily fended off, their individual causes unable to pierce the defensive shields of misinformation fabricated to protect the system and safeguard the Elite’s privilege. Any threat to the Established Order is quickly nullified by the Empire’s crack troops of propaganda. Rapid and ruthless counter attacks against information insurgencies are launched by editors and politicians in pincer movements to undermine the causes and discredit their leaders.

Unbowed, the different factions of resistance are uniting. Realising their strategic strength lies in their numbers, they are joining together in a common goal: to rip down the system, safeguard the planet and rebuild a fair and equal future for all. Driven by a band of defiant young visionaries, armed with information and imagination, a revolution is gathering momentum.

Unlike the conservative white mono-culture of the country club Elite, the revolutionaries are a vibrant melting pot of cultures and classes reaching across the divides inculcated by the Empire’s carefully crafted and cynically targeted campaigns of misinformation. Unlike the exclusivity of the Elite who congregate in plush surroundings sanitised by wealth, the revolutionaries throw open the doors of tattered buildings in neglected communities which double as Revolution nodes and community hubs. Unlike the limitless wealth accrued and abused by the Established Order to preserve the hegemony of Big Business, the Revolution is resourced only by the inescapable truth of the message, the bold vision of a safe and equal future for all, and the power of the personalities leading it.

Despite the mismatch in wealth, power and influence, the Revolution’s guerilla campaign of factual information is proving effective at disrupting the status quo. Their voice, amplified by the destruction and devastation wrought from intensifying climate turmoil, is now being heard by the Majority through the white noise transmitted to obfuscate the objectives of the Maximisation Strategy. Awareness of the deceit of the Elite is increasing. The profit fanaticism and the endemic corruption driving humanity to the precipice of existence are being exposed. Trust in and respect for the politicians positioned by the Elite to perpetuate their profit fallacy is diminishing. Anger amongst the majority is rising.

The system is under stress but the Elite act to maintain control. Insincere words about the scale of the challenge confronting humanity and the importance of building a better future for all are spoken to placate. Hollow promises on urgent action to make transformative change are scattered like confetti to appease. Culture wars are started to distract. Meanwhile, Business as Usual keeps extracting and exploiting and warnings of the twin threats of climate breakdown and ecological collapse are scorned. The Elite remain devout in their worship of profit, protected in their privilege, and disdainful of the Majority.

However, hubris is their weakness.

They underestimate the strength of the force forming against them. A young women has risen to prominence as the figurehead of the Revolution. Boldly visionary, fiercely focussed and boundlessly optimistic she has united the resistance movement behind an agenda of transformative ideas and injected impetus into the fight for the future. Her faux punk look, hair shaved at the sides and an asymmetric mane of frequently changing colours, disguises a clarity of purpose, an astute strategic mind and a razor-sharp wit. More pointedly, her numerous piercings, sleeve of tats and shredded clothing, are styled to antagonise the starchy, designer casual clad Elite. She has an uncanny, almost instinctive, ability to get under the skin of those politicians and media commentators set the mission to knock down her purpose and ideas. Her look unbalances her attackers and her eloquent ripostes to their unsubtle questioning, delivered in a clear, crisp confident tone that could earn her a job as a newsreader, land in the faces of her opponents like the stinging jabs of a skilled boxer. Deftly avoiding the swinging punches of an outclassed opponent, she ends every contest as a clear points winner. Her vanquished opponent leaves the ring bloodied and swollen faced.

Through her charisma, the Revolution is crossing over into the mainstream. Her intelligence and integrity, confidence and calmness, empathy and humour are cutting through to the Majority. Eyes are being opened, heads are being turned, hearts are being won, minds are being changed. Her clarion calls to tear down the system of extraction and exploitation are fuelling protest. Visions of a safe and just future are inspiring action. Outnumbered and in danger of being overrun the Elite are on the retreat. It is the end of the end.

In my imagining, the fight for the future, which for so long seemed futile, now offers hope. The Elite are losing control, the system is being dismantled, the crises countdown clock, if not yet stopped, has been slowed. The heroes are prevailing. Importantly for a blockbuster, there is scope for a sequel.

In our reality, an alternative ending can also be written. It will not be idyllic. Too much damage has already been inflicted on our planet. The effects of global heating and loss of biodiversity will still be felt. The way we lead our lives will be transformed. Sacrifices will need to be made. But we can prevail if we make the decision now: straight ahead over the precipice or sharp turn to new beginnings.

Imagine: Dystopia

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Imagine: Dystopia

For some it has been an inconvenience, for others a hardship, for far too many a tragedy. As locked down has eased, perhaps understandably, large groups of people converged on unprepared coastal towns. They travelled long distances to feel a little freedom from the restrictions necessarily imposed to curb the spread of Coronavirus and enjoy the community and congregation integral to human well-being that was badly missed by us all during our lockdown existence.

As they stretched out on the small space of sand claimed for the day on a crowded beach or sipped on a thirst quenching refreshment before thoughtlessly discarding the empty plastic bottle, many may have reflected on the disruption caused to society by the relatively minor shock of a pandemic and the unprecedented lifestyle changes made to contain the danger. After experiencing a different reality, we should all now force ourselves to imagine the catastrophic effects on our civilisation of a major trauma caused by the twin forces of unchecked man-made climate catastrophe and ecological collapse.

To start, imagine extreme heat forcing you to abandon your family farm which sustained your ancestors for generations, your heritage turned to dust by scorching sun and hot winds, as higher temperatures make villages across large swathes of Asia and Africa uninhabitable.

Then imagine living with the stress of the constant threat of evacuation from your home as droughts increase the frequency and ferocity of uncontrollable wildfires which, in the click of a lighter, could turn the community in which you have settled to cinder. Or because global heating has increased the instability of ice age glaciers and the likelihood of thunderous avalanches which, in the clap of a hand, could sweep away the home you have built in the scenic mountain village nestled in the foothills below.

Imagine Pacific Islands vanished beneath the swell of the vast ocean which sustained your culture for two millennia before rising sea levels wiped your small but proud nation from the map.

Imagine waves crashing against the hollow husks of skyscrapers protruding from oceans, crumbling monuments to the arrogance of a species that thought itself above nature, after the melt from polar ice caps has overwhelmed the defences of the large coastal city you lived and worked in.

Imagine large segments of the global population killed in the chaos unleashed by a violently changing climate and the collapse of carefully balanced life sustaining ecological systems. Hundreds of millions of lives ended abruptly by the brutal natural force of extreme weather events raging across the planet and many more suffering prolonged, agonising deaths from starvation or illnesses caused by the polluted atmosphere.

Imagine a smaller world with less space for the human population to live. The remaining population crammed into safelandss in Northern and Southern latitudes separated by vast dead zones too polluted, too toxic and too hot to sustain human life.

Imagine this world controlled by Cartels of the Corrupt 1%; the oligarchs, moguls, tycoons, and politicians who used their power and influence to recklessly push the planet beyond climate and ecological tipping points as they avariciously accumulated 99% of the world’s wealth before climate chaos descended. The ensuing death and destruction further concentrating the wealth, influence and power of the Corrupt 1%.

Imagine, following the disintegration of recognised national borders, a new world order. A more disconnected, divided and dangerous world ordered by fragile political alliances between ruling Cartels in recast territories who use clean water as a currency to buy labour and loyalty from the Followers – the misguided majority complicit in the unrestrained consumption that led to climate and ecological breakdown whilst generating the massive wealth for the Corrupt 1% to accumulate – who now survive in servitude as hard working labourers and expendable foot soldiers for their wealthy masters.

Imagine fortified communities built and populated by the 1%, who without conscience ravaged the planet for profit and corrupted the global economic system to concentrate wealth, influence and power in their small clique of super rich. Their climate secure sanctuaries protected, with equal ruthlessness, from impoverished Followers and the desperate Displaced by Artificial Intelligence sentries programmed to detect, classify and, when coding logic dictates, terminate intruders. Their extravagant lifestyles maintained through the continued oppression of Followers and the Displaced through drone surveillance and policing by Artificial Intelligence officers programmed to impose a strict rule of law.

Imagine Followers struggling day to day for survival in a hostile environment, labouring long hours to meet production quotas set by the Corrupt 1% in return for shelter and access to clean water. Their existence dependent on the smallholding assigned to them yielding enough food to fulfil quotas set by the Cartel’s Agribusiness Czar with enough left over to feed their families.

Imagine an even tougher struggle for those displaced by extreme heat and weather events that turned their homelands into inhabitable danger zones. Having survived treacherous journeys to arrive at Safelands with nothing except the tattered clothing they stood in and a keepsake or two small enough to stuff in a pocket or hang around their neck, they now eke an existence from land on the fringes of the Safelands assessed as unviable by Cartel Agribusiness. The remnants of abandoned towns and villages destroyed by ferocious storms powered by a warming climate provide shelter for the Displaced from the elements and the wilds animals that now roam the overgrown streets and avenues, both of which represent another threat to Displaced lives.

Imagine your grown up grandchildren providing for their families in a world like this.

My imagining of a not too distant climate changed future is a way for me to free my mind from the constraints of lockdown living and release climate change anxieties. It is an intentionally dystopian vision. Some of my ideas and characterisations are extreme but some are scarily plausible based on warnings from climate scientists. It should not be difficult for any of us to imagine the anxiety felt by Pacific Islanders.

Although it doesn’t read like it, I still hold out hope that the right actions can be taken in time to avert the horrors I have imagined during the latter stages of lockdown. I can also see an alternative future…

Now Is The Time – An Open Letter To My Elected Representatives

To My Elected Representatives

We are living through an extraordinarily difficult time. Many people are suffering due to the Coronavirus outbreak and the imposition of strict lockdown measures needed to contain it. I feel very fortunate my family and friends have remained healthy and the impact on my immediate family life has been manageable. We’ll continue to follow guidelines to stay safe and save lives.

Thankfully, we appear to be the past the peak and hopefully will soon reach a landmark day when zero deaths from Covid are reported in Scotland and the rest of the UK. Vigilance is still needed to protect public health but attention can now also turn to restructuring and rebuilding our society in the aftermath of the pandemic. It is time, borrowing the soundbite that seems to best capture the post Coronavirus zeitgeist, to ‘Build Back Better’.

I believe, like many others, there has for far too long been an imbalance in how our economy has operated and how society has worked. Our need to consume now has outweighed the need for a sustainable future. But the scales are tipping.

The reset forced on us by a global pandemic has brought calls from global organisations, central bank governors, business executives, religious leaders and Royalty to restructure and rebuild in a way that looks after people and protects our planet. The Establishment finally seems to acknowledge transformational change is imperative for the future of mankind. There is also a growing groundswell of public opinion that radical rethinks of how we consume, how we travel and how we work are needed to improve well being and safeguard our planet for future generations.

Now is the time for politicians to step forward, speak out and lead our nation into the battle for a new way of life. As somebody once almost said:

Upon this battle depends the future of civilization. The whole fury and might of climate change will very soon be turned on us. If politicians come together in this moment, all generations may be free and the life of the world may move forward into clean, green, sunlit, uplands. But if they fail, then the whole world, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more savage, by the extreme heat and weather of climate catastrophe. Let politicians therefore brace us to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the planet and it’s ecosystem, last for a thousand years, future generations will still say, “This was their finest hour”.

You are in a position as an elected representative to evoke this spirit of national endeavour in the battle against climate change and set the nation moving forward to a greener, brighter, fairer future. There is political consensus on the need to act to prevent catastrophic climate change. There is broad agreement on the actions needed. There are similar ideas espoused in Party election manifestos and climate change position papers. Calls to act are now deafening. A momentum is building. Now is the time for change. Now is the time for politicians to unite. Now is the time for politicians to lead. Now is the time for politicians to act. Now is your time.

I write to politicians and in my blog to do what little I can as a dad to safeguard the future of the planet for my two teenage boy but politicians don’t hear me and nobody reads my blog (except my wife!).

In contrast to my inaudible whispers, you have a voice that will be heard in Parliament and in the media. I again urge you, as a politician and a steward of our planet, to step forward and loudly speak out on the changes needed to combat climate catastrophe. By doing so you will help move us all forward to sunlit uplands and our grandchildren’s grandchildren will say this was your finest hour.

Yours Sincerely

Dad Against Climate Change

Protection Payments for Future Generations

The need to pay countries to protect life sustaining ecosystems, as proposed during talks last week on a global agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity decline, is an appalling indictment of our species. But I understand the demands from African and Latin American countries.

After all, little Qatar, with the 141^st biggest population in the world and occupying a geographical area on the Arabian peninsula smaller than the Falkland Islands, exploited its natural resources to become, based on the average spending of it citizens, the richest country in the world.

The extraordinary wealth generated from extracting oil and gas reserves enables Qatar to wield geopolitical influence disproportionate to the size, by geographical area, of the 158^th largest country in the world and successfully bid for prestigious global sporting events.

In contrast to tiny Qatar, big Brazil – the fifth largest sovereign state by geographical area, the sixth largest by population and the country with one third of the world’s rainforest coverage – is much lower down the rankings of wealth per individual. Despite the size and biodiversity of their homeland, Brazilians are only the 80^th richest in the world.

As Qatar flaunts its wealth on the global stage, it is easy to see why poorer countries rich in biodiversity also want to profit from the natural resources within their geographical boundaries.

Stewardship of the planet by the current generation for future generations should be a moral obligation rather than a financial transaction but our grotesque economic system contorts values and perpetrates economic injustices. Paying countries for ecosystem services is tantamount to a protection racket but I see no other way within the prevailing orthodoxy to sustain biodiversity and perpetuate life on the planet as we know it.