As I write, COP26 is soon to begin and humanity’s effect on the world’s climate system, and general ecosystem will be to the fore in news reports for a week or so. We have already been presented with countless documentaries from David Attenborough and the like about the dreadful state of the natural world, and how it has been degraded to an extent not seen since the meteorite that struck the earth and caused the last mass extinction event. You don’t need me to reiterate the catalogue of problems that our species has caused, a slow devastation akin to the effect of that meteorite.
If I think about it, I have known that our way of life has been unsustainable ever since I was at secondary school. I recall back then that there was horror at the amount of the rain forest that was being cleared. There was little concern about the climate, but we knew that it was an ecological disaster which would surely cause other problems sooner or later. That was 50 years ago, and all we have succeeded in doing is to become much more efficient at our destruction, our production of waste, and our ability to convert the oxygen we breathe into carbon dioxide.
But we always take things to the brink, to the edge of disaster before pulling back and saying enough is enough. Like the huge exploitation of the whale, only just stopping short of the extinction of numerous species. But we are only now discovering how the loss of their numbers has degraded the natural balance of our oceans. The crucial thing about brinkmanship is knowing where the brink is, and how close we can get to it without crossing it. The Canadian trawler men thought that they could take unlimited amounts of cod out of their North Atlantic fishing grounds – they were wrong. The stocks have never recovered and cod are now extinct in those waters.
We have grown too efficient, too proficient at exploiting our world to feed our ever-growing population and our desire for things. Surely we have reached the brink now, or are we doomed to push our luck until we fall over the edge into whatever oblivion awaits our poor beleaguered planet and us? Of course, it will cost us – especially those of us whose employment is vulnerable, whose income cannot cope with increases in the price of food, energy and transport. For the rest of us, if a proportion of our population is not to starve, or freeze to death, we will have to bear higher taxes and accept a larger share of our earnings and wealth going to others. This is no time to envy politicians – but it is a time to encourage them to be brave.
William