Many of our governing bodies at both national and local levels are declaring a climate emergency. But what does this mean? Do we carry on as before or are we meant to do something differently?
We usually think of an emergency as some event that has happened that requires an urgent need for action to counteract unpleasant consequences. The key words being “action” and “urgent”. But when we look at what our politicians are doing, we do not see any action. It seems that once they have declared a “climate emergency” andposted it on their websites and social media pages they consider that they have done enough.
So why do they declare an emergency? Because even our politicians can no longer ignore the fact that our land is either on fire or under water; and that these are not ‘one in a million-year events’ but are becoming annual events. They are also having to acknowledge that the unpleasant consequences are loss of homes & livelihoods, food & water, resulting in mass migration and a breakdown of civil society as we know it. So, they declare a climate emergency.
Then our governments continue with business as usual: they claim that there are no resources to do anything else and that no one knows what to do because they cannot agree on the underlying causes, and it is always someone else’s problem. Our political classes are not willing to acknowledge that it is the way we currently manage our society and economy that is at the root of these problems.
The urgent action that is required is the reformation how we run our economy: to halt the use of fossil fuels and halt resource extraction, to create a circular economy where there is no more waste (because all waste is treated as a resource) and to reverse the decline in biodiversity and allow all living creatures to live with us on this planet. But this requires the transformation of our economic, agricultural, industrial and energy policies. It also means that those currently benefiting from the exploitation of life on earth will face a reduction in their income and their powerbase – and these are the people who control our politicians. So, no action is taken, even though our Governments have declared an emergency.
And what did Winston Churchill say about World War 2 (12 November 1936)?
“Owing to past neglect, in the face of the plainest warnings, we have entered upon a period of danger. The era of procrastination, of half measures, of soothing and baffling expedients of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences… We cannot avoid this period; we are in it now…”
What is a climate emergency and does the evidence justify one? This report from CISL Fellow Paul Gilding reviews the evidence about the scale, timing and urgency of the risks posed by climate change to determine whether an emergency response is both necessary and feasible.
https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/resources/faculty-publications/paul-gilding-climate-emergency-defined
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