Let’s be real - will anything get better when folk’s priorities are usually about themselves?
Let me explain my rather emotional opening point.
There’s been lots of news this week unsurprisingly about how we had the hottest year on record last year. The last 10 years have been the hottest on record. Wildfires, floods, you name it - the earth is changing.
Yet here in the temperate, largely rainy UK, many people I see around me are very happy to have their head in the sand, while also bizarrely choosing just one or two lines of attack on the climate crisis to shame others.
One of the parents i know has an electric car. It’s nice, I’m happy for them. They also take at least five flight a year. They have three children.
Yet if you hear them talk about diesel cars… it’s as if the owners are personally killing everyone around them.
Now don’t get me wrong. Emissions locally are important, the air our kids breathe is important. that might be a focus.
However you see it in the choice of car journeys over trains, of large SUVs over a normal family car like a Golf.
The latter particularly grates. We have a huge climate crisis. Yet Joanna or Nicola has to have a Discovery Sport for her three kids because she needs to sit high up, it’s easier to load them in, and she worries about crash worthiness.
The history books will show that rather than looking up and out for each other, we’re actually turning more inwards. Our own personal economy will always triumph over needing to protect others. If I’m able to pay £400 a month PCP on a Dispcvery Sport, then “I’ll protect my family over anything”, even though the entire thought process is irrational.
We need to take fewer flights and more rail journeys. working from home should mean more walking to school as the commute has gone. instead we’re seeing more car journeys. More flights. More large purchases; throwaway electronics; fast fashion.
AIBU to think there’s a lot of cognitive dissonance and head in the sand about climate change in the UK, and spending power (and the choices it unlocks) is king?