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

Airlines fight for their flights

Do Not Resuscitate.

The airline industry is in a critical condition in intensive care. Richard Branson has offered a private island as collateral on a government bailout to keep his Virgin Atlantic airline from nosediving into administration and Easyjet have already accepted a £600m taxpayer handout to keep it from crashing whilst its planes are grounded. Meanwhile, in the industry’s fight for life, executives of the other big industry players have warned of massive job losses in a co-ordinated counter attack to pressurise governments to return the industry to business as usual as quickly as possible.

For the sake of future generations government must not yield. They must resist a return to a business as usual model in which the perpetual growth in air traffic is regarded as a sign of success for a thriving trading nation. Instead, the airline industry must be reborn in a way that avoids shortfalls in social well-being that could be felt from thousands of people losing their jobs and overshoots in the ecological limits of our planet from the emissions generated by air travel. It must be modelled on The Doughnut.

Coronavirus has ushered in the transformational change to the industry that was urgently needed to protect our planet for future generations. It is unlikely politicians would have found the courage themselves to demand a new outlook on air travel from the industry. It is just as unlikely that we, as consumers, would have have accepted the change needed in our behaviours.

However, Coronavirus has hit the reset button on business as usual.

The need for a green new deal is now glaringly obvious. Governments must act to ensure the rebirth of the airline industry fits within the net zero targets they have set and to create new employment opportunities for the thousands of airline workers that would be affected by transformation to a new paradigm for air travel.

Highly paid industry executives must use wit and imagination to set a new flight path for the industry that looks beyond short term passenger growth targets. This inevitability means grounding the low margin high volume model that stimulated a surge in greenhouse gas emissions from flying over the last two decades.

And we must remember there is an alternative way. Reducing the number of flights we take does not now seem like a big sacrifice to make.

The airline industry will continue its desperate demands to revive their business as usual model. The order should remain in place: Do Not Resuscitate.

We Must All Sign the ‘Big Business as Usual’ DNR

As health systems across the world are overwhelmed by the rapid spread of a deadly virus, the economic system which has left us all vulnerable to the virulent strain of Coronavirus sweeping exponentially across continents is, like many of the people infected by the disease, in intensive care fighting for its life.

However, unlike the thousands of people fighting for breath in overloaded intensive care units, the economic model that has plundered and polluted the planet, stripped back the state, enfeebled public services, and neglected community is not worthy of heroic efforts to preserve life.

There can not, must not be a return to ‘business as usual’ and the pursuit of short term profits and perpetuals prioritised in the shareholder economy.

Instead we must regenerate. We must find a new way to be. We must find a new way of living that “recognises that well-being depends on enabling every person to lead a life of dignity and opportunity, while safeguarding the integrity of Earth’s life-supporting systems,” as urged by Kate Raworth author of ‘Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think like a 21^st Century Economist”.

The titular Doughnut, Raworth’s new economic model of human well-being, is increasingly recognised as an important tool for guiding humanity through the 21st Century. Raworth’s Doughnut combines two concentric circles to depict the two boundaries – social and ecological – that encompass human well being. The inner boundary is the floor under which twelve internationally agreed dimensions of social well being, including hunger, ill health, illiteracy and energy poverty, must not fall. The outer boundary of the Doughnut is the ecological ceiling through which pressure on Earth’s life supporting systems, such as climate change, ocean acidification and biodiversity loss, must not break.

Raworth asserts: “Between the two boundaries lies the ecologically safe and socially just space in which all of humanity has the opportunity to thrive.”

In essence, we need to be the dough of the Doughnut. Raworth’s dough recipe has four key ingredients:

recognising the dependence of human well-being on planetary health
reducing deep inequalities that reflect social shortfalls and ecological overshoots caused by the current economic model
a renewal of economic thinking and policymaking so that prioritisation of gross domestic product growth is replaced by an economic vision designed to be regenerative and distributive
an understanding of the complex interdependence of human well-being and planetary health

Since Raworth first created her model of well-being in 2012 it has been widely applied in academia, progressive businesses, urban planning and civil society as a tool to think differently about sustainable development. Now Amsterdam is set to become the first city in the world to adopt the Doughnut as a model to guide decision making.

“The doughnut does not bring us the answers but is a way of looking at it so that we don’t keep on going in the same structures we used to,” explained Marieke Van Doorminck, Amsterdam’s Deputy Mayor, citing decisions made to deal with the city’s housing crisis that fill the socially just and ecologically safe space between the inner and outer rings of the Doughnut. Not only will more houses be built to address the issue but the city now also plans to introduce regulations to ensure builders use materials that are recycled and bio based.

The solutions to Amsterdam’s housing problems identified by using the Doughnut to look at things in a new way also encompass a new economic model that is increasingly recognised as an alternative to the throwaway consumer culture spawned from the economic system we have been chained to for the last forty years.

Circularity aims to eliminate waste and reduce pollution and carbon emissions through reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling resources. The circular economy, as this new model is also known, creates a closed-loop system in which “waste” from one product or process becomes “food” for another industrial process or a regenerative resource for nature. Amsterdam’s new housing regulations will use the principle of the circular economy to build houses that inhabit the Doughnut’s safe space.

Transition to a circular economy is also underway in Scotland where the model is recognised as an imperative to achieving Scotland’s net zero emissions target by 2045. Introducing proposed legislation in the Circular Economy Bill, Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Land Reform, said: “An estimated 80% of our global climate emissions are currently linked to the production, consumption and waste of products and resources. For our journey towards becoming a net-zero society to be successful, it must involve a fundamental re-think about how we use and reuse materials.”

In addition to environmental benefits Ms Cunningham expects a thriving circular economy to present “enormous economic and industrial opportunities” by improving productivity, opening up new markets, providing employment opportunities and lowering the cost of the goods we need.

Whilst Scotland is committed to developing an economic model that lives in the safe ecological space under the outer ring of the Doughnut, another small nation on the other side of the world has committed to a different economic perspective that aims to help all its citizens live in the space above the Doughnut’s socially just inner ring.

Last year, New Zealand became the first country in the world to deliver a ‘Wellbeing Budget’. Spending decisions were informed by a Living Standards Framework (LSF) developed by the New Zealand Treasury to provide a perspective on what matters for New Zealanders’ well-being, now and into the future. Based on the principle that gauging the long-term impact of policies on the quality of people’s lives is better than focusing on short-term output measures, the budget set five priorities: addressing mental health issues, child well-being, supporting indigenous peoples aspirations, encouraging productivity and transitioning to a sustainable economy.

“We’re embedding that notion of making decisions that aren’t just about growth for growth’s sake, but how are our people faring?” Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, said. “How is their overall well-being and their mental health? How is our environment doing? These are the measures that will give us a true measure of our success.”

The questions asked by Ardern are essentially the same as those Raworth asks. And the models being used in New Zealand and Amsterdam to provide a fresh perspective for decision making are similar – the twelve domains used in New Zealand’s LSF map closely to the twelve dimensions which make up the social foundation of Raworth’s Doughnut.

It should then be no surprise the solutions also converge. Building Regulations in Amsterdam, Circular Economy in Scotland and Economic Transformation in New Zealand’s all recognise the need to do things differently, to live in a way that prioritises people and planet ahead of profit and perpetual growth. Together they provide a vision of how we can be in the future, how we can develop a thriving economy that recognises well being and planetary health.

The way we live has brought us to a second global crisis in little over a decade. Last time, following the financial crisis in 2008, banks were bailed out and the stakeholder model revived. Since then ‘big business as usual’ has fought to maximise profit at the expense of the well-being of people and the health of the planet.

Once again it is in a state of collapse, fighting for survival, dependent on the state and underpaid, overworked key workers for life support. This time though the medical order we write must be ‘Do Not Resuscitate’.

Time to draw battle lines

Coronavirus is everywhere – epedemiologically, politically and socially. A quick glance at a coronavirus map shows it has spread to every continent with hotspots of dry coughs in China, Iran and Italy.

In the UK, senior politicians have been conspicuous by their presence and the new Conservative Chancellor used his first budget to raid the Exchequer for additional money to manage the outbreak. Even the lesser spotted Boris Johnson has emerged from hiding to advise the populace how to wash their hand in his accustomed bumbling manner.

Politicians have been given air time and column inches to disseminate the public health message. Coronavirus has saturated media output: live feeds provide rolling outbreak updates, newspaper headlines and broadcast bulletins are dominated by the pandemic with any other news event relegated to the inside pages or cursory mentions “In other news today”, and it is the only topic on the countless topical phone-ins which fill the morning radio schedules.

Despite blanket coverage, attempts to contain the virus are failing. The UK is soon expected to formally move from ‘Phase 1 Containment’ to ‘Phase 2 Delay’ which will include closing schools, cancelling large scale gatherings and encouraging people to work from home.

Whilst the virus is continuing to spread, the messages are hitting home. The social and economic costs of containment and delay seem to be widely accepted as necessary to deal with the outbreak. Mouths are being covered, tissues are being used, hands are being washed and handshakes are being avoided. Our behaviours are changing. Quickly.

The urgency in our national response to the threat posed by the coronavirus outbreak contrasts sharply to the procrastination and prevarication which epitomises our response to the far more serious threat of interrelated climate change and biodiversity loss.

However, it does show if the Establishment is minded to do so that it can galvanise a nation against imminent danger. It shows what can be done and how quickly change can be accepted.

Of course, the fight against coronavirus is taking place on a single front which focuses effort on devising a battle plan and assembling resources for the fight. In contrast, the theatre of war against climate change and biodiversity loss is far larger and more complex.

As such, it demands even more urgent, far-reaching action to avert climate catastrophe and a different mindset from those in positions of influence to lead us through change unprecedented in scale. Political leaders must rise above the adversarial political gaming which has come to characterise our parliamentary democracy. Instead, bridges must be built and hands offered (metaphorically only – the coronavirus precludes actual hand holding) across political divides to invigorate our response to impending ecological collapse. A Climate and Biodiversity (CAB) War Cabinet should be established to form a parliamentary coalition which places action on climate change and biodiversity loss above the politics of the electoral cycle.

The purpose of the coalition would be to foster a collective national effort which would enable the actions and changes in behaviour needed to tackle climate change. The coalition would:

signal a shift in mindset by making a joint political declaration promising a collaborative, collective response to the climate challenge. The declaration would commit political parties to a climate coalition until the net zero target is reached.
set out a vision of a net zero economy and lay out a programme of measures – or a low carbon ‘green print’ – to achieve emissions targets
collectively promote the net zero vision to galvanise a national response to the climate crisis and reinforce the changes in behaviour needed to achieve the net zero target.
expedite political decision making to enable efficient execution of the ‘green-print’ by and nimble responses to new opportunities and threats.
take collective responsibility for climate change action by regularly reviewing and transparently reporting progress towards the net zero target.

A CAB War Cabinet would be faced with a daunting challenge.

Our response to the threat of pandemic provides a model of what a concerted, national endeavour to net zero would look and feel like with visible leadership from politicians flanked by experts, facts easily available through trusted sources, increased awareness of the impact of our behaviours and acceptance of our obligation to change.

However, the blitz launched against the threat of coronavirus is unsustainable for the much longer, more strategic campaign needed to combat climate change and biodiversity loss. Forces for transformational economic and societal change must be lined up for a sustained push on all key fronts to gain supremacy over defenders of ‘business as usual’. Important strategic strongholds must be established in the battle grounds of energy, travel and agriculture. But breaking through the seemingly impregnable fortifications of big business and overcoming the propaganda of consumerism will be arduous as opposing forces dig-in for a fight to the death.. of our planet.

Victory can only be achieved and net zero reached in time by forging a political alliance to provide the unity of purpose needed to win the most important battle in human history. Now is not the time for our political leaders to appease the powers of ‘business as usual’. Battle lines must be drawn. A CAB War Cabinet must be established and we must all sign up to the battle of our lives.

A Bridge Too Far

Dear Ms Cunningham

I am writing to you, as the Cabinet Secretary responsible for achieving the net zero target now required by law, to ask you to use the powers at your disposal to block the A720 Sherrifhall Roundabout Scheme.

I have objected in the strongest possible terms to the Proposal which includes building a flyover to improve movement of traffic. Approving the scheme would be a betrayal to future generations. We are in the tightening grip of a climate crisis caused by global heating. It is now widely acknowledged global temperatures are increasing as a result of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, such as driving petrol fuelled vehicles.

The Committee on Climate Change, advisers to both UK and Scottish Governments on building a low carbon economy and preparing for climate change, state: “it is extremely likely that human activity has been the dominant cause of warming since the mid-20th Century.”

Both UK and Scottish Governments, heeding the advice of the Committee on Climate Change, have set legislative targets to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and 2045, respectively. These targets can only be achieved if we radically transform the human activities, such as dependence on petrol fuelled vehicles, that risk climate catastrophe.

The obvious place to begin the transformation is with those human activities most guilty of producing greenhouse gas emissions.

According to figures published by the Department of Energy, Business and Industrial Strategy in 2018, the Transport Sector is responsible for the largest proportion of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. The government report states: “In 2018 transport accounted for a third (33 per cent) of all carbon dioxide emissions. The large majority of emissions from transport are from road transport.”

Clearly, governments should be focused on urgently and radically changing how we travel. Highest priority should be given to schemes that will help achieve the net zero targets we are now required by law to meet.

In this context, it is preposterous to propose a scheme intended to support a predicted 40% increase in traffic volume on the road network around Edinburgh in the next 20 years.

Instead, the next 25 years must be used to deliver schemes that will safeguard the planet for future generations by drastically reducing the volume of traffic and the amount of emissions generated from road transport.

Approving this scheme would be irresponsible, even immoral.

Could you please confirm you will fulfil your moral obligation to future generations by doing all that is permissible within your powers to stop the A720 Sherrifhall Roundabout Scheme and instead ensure the budgeted £120m investment and resource is prioritised for schemes that will contribute to achieving net zero targets

Further Reaching Change Needed to Douse Flames

Dear Sir

George Monbiot’s demand (Opinion 29/1) to legislate for a maximum response on climate action is beyond the capabilities of the people responsible for law making – our politicians. Further reaching change is needed if we are to have any hope of dousing the flames fanned by Climate Change.

The Scottish Parliament heartily slapped itself on the back when it approved a self proclaimed world leading target to reach net zero emissions by 2045. Yet they were applauding themselves for what, if I was to be kind, amounted to complacency and incompetence or, if I am being forthright, a dereliction of duty and a betrayal of younger generations.

The Climate Change Scotland Bill took two and a half years from April 2017 to 25th September 2019 to pass. During that period the IPCC published its authoritative scientific report on the catastrophic risks of global temperature increases exceeding 1.5C with a clarion call to politicians to act urgently.

The Scottish Government’s immediate response was to resist changing the targets contained within the bill to net zero whilst it awaited the recommendations of the independent body subject to George Monbiot’s ire in this article. Another 6 months was then taken to amend and approve the bill.

And since then? Nothing. A couple of policy announcements were made. I am sure these will be working their way painfully slowly through the legislative process as fossil fuel dependent business as usual continues to spew greenhouse gases and global temperatures continue to break meteorological records.

The programmed mindset of confrontational, point-scoring, back-stabbing politics bound to lumbering, rigid legislative processes will prevent those currently in charge of the fire fighting equipment from unravelling the hoses and turning on the taps to extinguish the flames before the structure of our burning house, warped by increasing global temperatures, collapses.

The CCC report is emblematic of the system’s inability to act for a longer-term greater good.

Kicking the consumerism habit

Dear Sir

I agree with John Vidal (Opinion 14/1) that the solution to reducing waste is less consumption. I’m less sure it can be done easily.

As Vidal points out, a lot of the the stuff we buy we don’t actually need. I would add that a lot of the stuff we need could be shared. For example, every house in my residential neighbourhood has a lawnmower but each lawnmower will stand idle for most of its lifetime before being needlessly discarded for a newer model.

Yet consumerism is so embedded in our psyche we seem incapable of kicking the habit of buying stuff. We know it’s bad for the planet, we know it’s not really making us happy but we can’t help ourselves.

We need intervention from governments (local and national) to help us break our consumption habit. Support could be given indirectly through funding social enterprises, community groups etc as part of a shift to a sharing economy. Incentives could be also be offered directly through taxation and subsidies to make individual choices clearer. Personally, I like the idea of a Tat Tax on throwaway products that do do not satisfy sustainability standards and a net zero discount on products that help achieve greenhouse gas emission targets.

We also need a sustained public education programme on the risks of consumerism and the benefits of consuming less. Perhaps an image of the blackened lungs of a koala on the box of a lawnmower might encourage us to share with our neighbours instead of buying for ourselves.

However, the thing that makes breaking our habits and reshaping our way of life so difficult is our politicians lack of imagination and wit to offer an alternative and their lack of courage and conviction to dispense the medicine and tough love we all need to break free from the grip of consumerism.

As Hurricane Dorian weakens we need Schumpeter’s Gale to blow

Hurricane Dorian and the devastation it’s power wrought as the Category 5 storm ripped and tore a path through the low-lying Bahamian islands was another portent of a climate changed future. Scientific consensus is clear: higher sea temperatures caused by global heating increase the strength and intensity of tropical cyclones like Hurricane Dorian, the fiercest storm to hit The Bahamas.

News reports from the ravaged islands will prompt an outpouring of sympathy for the lives lost to the storm and those forever changed in it’s aftermath. Emergency funds will be raised and relief efforts rolled-out by posturing wealthier nations. However, just like a tropical cyclone, the news cycle will quickly move through and global attention will weaken.

One year on from Hurricane Maria, which obliterated the island of Puerto Rico in 2017, Amnesty International reported that 166,000 homes were still being being re-built or repaired and tens of thousands of families were still living under blue tarpaulins. This in a territory of the wealthiest nation in the world.

At the start of the 2019 hurricane season, little had changed for the stricken people of Puerto Rica who were still waiting for the help promised by the US Government during peak news to materialise. According to figures published by Oxfam America’s policy experts, as of 31 May 2019, virtually nothing of the $20 billion of federal assistance allocated to re-build homes had reached the island and at least 30,000 households were living in fear of the fury of another storm ripping through the Caribbean island still sheltered only by a flimsy waterproof cloth.

After a cursory glance of morbid curiosity, we too quickly avert our eyes allowing the system to grind on and business as usual to continue. We extract, we burn and we consume to feed our materialism in unsustainable ways at an unsustainable rate. The cycle of consumption designed to feed the system we are harnessed to also feeds the strengthening ferocity of the tropical cyclones that cost lives and decimate coastal communities in Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Americas.

People left struggling for survival in the wake of devastating storms powered from seas warmed by global heating caused by our cycle of consumption need more than token gestures of sympathy and hollow political pledges. They need action from individuals and governments by 2030 to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C.

Chucking another few quid on the credit card or re-allocating money from aid budgets won’t quieten the storms or alleviate the insecurity of those living in cyclone regions. Fundamental change is needed to our mindset and the economic system we live within.

Individually, we need to recognise the butterfly effect of our every day choices: simple actions in a complex system can have significant consequences elsewhere. Nipping to the supermarket in the car today brews the storm that decimates islands and devastates lives in the Caribbean tomorrow.

However, individual choices can only change if there is an alternative choice available. Individuals need politicians to collectively find the will to dismantle the system of short-term individual material and wealth accumulation we are programmed to follow and build in its place a system of stewardship designed for long-term sustainability of life on our planet.

A storm with the ferocity of the strongest and most intense tropical cyclone will rage, fuelled, like warming seas increasing the force of an Atlantic Hurricane, by the wealthy and influential beneficiaries of the current system. Politicians will only withstand the battering from the full force of the storm if they are sheltered by honesty about the problems we are causing today and a vision of a better tomorrow for us all.

Politicians need to make clear the need for urgent change and the change that urgently needs to made: energy efficient buildings must be built, gas heating systems need to be replaced, air travel must reduce, active travel needs to increase, farming practices must change, diets should be more plant based, less stuff must be consumed.

And they need to offer hope with a vision of a better tomorrow: new industries offering new jobs, new technologies needing new skills, different lifestyles improving health and well-being, different priorities leading to the re-vitalisation of forgotten communities, a stabilised climate offering communities, like those in The Bahamas, a secure habitat, threatened species thriving in biodiverse ecosystems.

In a hurricane, the eye is the region of mostly calm weather at the centre of the cyclone. The deep pressure in the small centre of the storm is surrounded by the eyewall, a devastating region of disaster with winds strong enough and rainfall intense enough to tear down, rip up and wash away everything in it’s path. The deeper the pressure in the eye the greater the fury in the eyewall.

Democracy is the eye of the storm for system change. We must each make personal consumption and political choices to deepen the pressure for change on political and business leaders. The pressure, if deep enough, will create the forces to blow down the structures of the current system and create the space for a new system of stewardship with sustainable goals at its heart to develop.

This process of destroying existing systems to allow economic renewal is not a new concept. Jospeh Schumpeter, an Austrian economist, described in 1942 the “gale of creative destruction” as the “process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionises the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one”. More recently, the idea has been used by social scientists to link creative destruction to sustainable development.

As Hurricane Dorian weakens in its path along the Eastern American seaboard it is time for Schumpeter’s Gale, with intense pressure created from our democratic choices, to blow strongly across the globe.