On my recent travels during these year-end holidays I came across a copy of the excellent magazine, Country Living (UK). There was a strong environmental thread running through the magazine, but the interesting thing was that it was dated January 1989.
One column, in particular, grabbed my attention, particularly in light of the recent weather events we have been experiencing in the past few years – even in the past few months.
Under the heading “How green is our harvest?”, was the blurb: “1988 was the year the world saw floods, drought and famine, when the seals died in the North Sea, and we learned about the hole in the ozone layer. None of these were natural disasters – all have been man made. 1989 is the year to stop taking heedlessly from the planet and to start directing our efforts to replenishing it. Now the environmental lobby has thrown down the ‘Green Gauntlet’ of 30 points for reform to prompt the Government into action. The next decade must be green or future generations will inherit a barren earth.”
The column in question was written by Jonathon Porritt, then a director of Friends of the Earth. It all sounds incredibly familiar, doesn’t it?
So if Porritt was talking about the 90s as the decade to turn things around – “The next decade must be green or future generations will inherit a barren earth” – does that mean it’s all too late, or is there still time to make a difference?
Horrific pictures
Let’s have a look at some relevant recent headlines: “Aus floods: Horrific pictures emerge” (News24); “Factbox: Companies and industries hit by Australian floods: (Reuters); “More than 30 likely killed in South African floods” (Reuters); “Tsunami horror hits Britain” (The Independent); “Chile quake toll tops 700 as tsunami devastation emerges (newstheage.com.au)”. The headlines go on and on . . . issues around drought and water scarcity, violent storms, flooding and heating events. Let’s not even mention global warming and the ozone layer.
Yes, we are doing something. There are financial benefits for countries, industry and companies which act in a responsible manner (the really important and influential ones like the US and China seem rather reluctant to fully commit themselves, however), there is new technology, and as individuals we are taking steps to change the way we use water and electricity at home. Recycling, solar geysers, adjustable pressure showerheads, JoJo tanks, these are all becoming familiar words to most households.
But at a huge environmental conference held last year in Mexico (Cancun Climate Summit) the general consensus was that progress was solid at best, with the big payers again failing to commit to sweeping and necessary changes to “save the planet”. So where do we stand?
Cancun agreement rescues UN credibility but falls short of saving the planet
My reading of it is that “We’d like to perhaps help stop the total decimation of the planet and, ultimately, our way of life, but we also don’t want to rock the boat, upset industry and halt the industrial/economic/political complexes that pay for our current way of living and all the fabulous bells and whistles that go with it. We do care, but change is rather inconvenient and costly for some.”
In my humble view, the world – collectively and individually – is not doing nearly enough to counter the threat of changing environmental conditions.
In closing, I’ll quote something from that same issue of Country Living way back in 1989, that appeared under “What next? We asked 10 people about their hopes and fears for the future.” The correspondent? Prince Charles, of all people. Here’s what he had to say:
“What we are being inexorably forced up against is the realisation that, in the end, our long-term interests and those of all life on this planet are inextricably bound up with each other. We are beginning to realise that whatever we do to nature – whether it is on the grandest scale or just in our own gardens – is ultimately something that we are doing to our own deepest selves. We have not been put on this planet to destroy it.”
As in 1989, so in 2011. Hear, hear.
By Garth Johnstone (concerned citizen).