COP30. Over and Out?
When global climate conferences involve politicians and scientists all jetting off to a distant part of the planet to make promises they don’t seem to intend to keep, one has to wonder if they have any understanding at all of the existential crisis that faces humanity. If COP30 were to be the last conference of its kind, and all those scientists and politicians could bear to stage a series of smaller, interconnected conferences online rather than polluting an already polluted atmosphere with yet more emissions from jets, then I might give the initiative some credibility. Just now, it’s a joke.
An estimated 50,000 people have flown to Brazil for COP30, and yes, it would be impossible to stage an online conference for 50,000 people, but surely there has to be some form of reset? Increasingly, the COP conferences are attracting fossil fuel lobbyists, intent on hamstringing moves to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. This isn’t a new thing. Fossil fuel lobbyists seem to show up everywhere to protect their own industry, sometimes spreading misinformation and using commercial and political muscle to delay or overturn decisions that would actually be beneficial for us all. It seems to be the way of this world that a few powerful rich men drag the rest of us along their misguided paths. That needs to change.
No, I’m not a Commie, nor am I ‘Hard Left’. Like most people, my views differ depending on the topic, and as you go through life some of those views shift with personal circumstances. However, if there is one thing that has been absolutely consistent in my life, it has been the clear knowledge that protecting our environment can sustain our race for many centuries to come. It’s also crystal clear that if we continue to abuse it, humans will become history, sooner rather than later. That isn’t scaremongering. It just happens to be true.
Whether it’s taking another foreign holiday, going on another cruise, or even something as simple as washing the car with a bucket of water rather than a power washer, each of those things can make a massive collective impact on our ability to steer our race away from calamity. Ideas such as these are frequently seized upon by Far Right groups as a massive intrusion on the right of people to do what the hell they want. All I’m calling for here is moderation: you don’t, for example, need three foreign holidays a year, have your wedding in Bali, or your stag do in Las Vegas. To me, these things just hammer more nails into the coffin.
The media trend towards programmes such as racing around the world, getting people out of apparent jungles, finding holiday homes in sunnier climes, raffling massive houses in farmland and on cliff tops – none of it is helping. Yet it’s encouraging the wanderlust in us all, and normalising the pumping of more shit into our atmosphere. I realised exactly how much shit when we made our move from suburban Manchester to Berwick upon Tweed, because my asthma instantly improved. That means the majority of my fellow countryfolk are breathing in shit far more than they know.
So yes, there is something you can do about it. Don’t ever believe there isn’t. With freedom comes responsibility, so I’m fine with someone taking occasional flights abroad if their lives at home are respectful of the environment in which we live: minimising water use, minimising the use of energy, minimising the purchase of products online or wrapped in five layers of plastic, leaving plastic wrapping at the supermarket instead of bringing it home, re-using as much plastic packaging as you can…this really isn’t rocket science. We should stop laying all the blame on the big companies until we have our own houses in order. Then we can lay the blame firmly at their door.
Peace.
John