Staying stubbornly optimistic: notes from the critical year of climate action — part 1
We’re 64 days into 2020. Which means there are 301 days left to save the world. No, 302 — I forgot that astrophysics has given us a whole extra day to sort our shit out. Thanks, ancient Egyptian astronomers :-)
If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about — catch up here.(TL;DR — if we don’t make a plan to halve the planet’s carbon emissions by 2030 THIS YEAR and then start activating it over the coming decade, with the endgame being netzero by 2040 or 2050 at the latest, then we’re screwed. Like, end of the world, all life on earth probably over, screwed.)
I wrote that piece summing up the evidence for why 2020 is do or die on the last day of 2019. I was feeling what my new favourite superhero Christiana Figueres calls “stubbornly optimistic”. My perspective was (and remains): you have to be in it to win it.
My plan is to check in on what’s going on every other month through this critical year. This is update 1.
64 days in, and we’re facing a global pandemic. Even this has a connection to our sub-optimal behaviours around consumption and exploitation of nature. Allow Christiana to explain:
“This is certainly not the last time that we’re going to have this kind of disease eruption if we continue to deny, delude and delay on climate change. We will have a much broader range of diseases that already exist now and we will have new diseases that erupt. We’d better be ready for that. […] Warmer temperatures will mean many more of the vector borne diseases that are currently restricted to warm areas — there will be more warm areas as the planet warms— and hence diseases such as dengue and malaria will spread and increase their range. In addition to that it is very likely that if we continue to pollute our air, if we continue to eat animals, that we will actually be poisoning ourselves and being the genesis of new diseases that we have not seen before.”
Optimism feels pretty hard. No, it feels almost delusional.
And. Yet. I can still find reasons to be cheerful because I am seeing signs that we are, finally, getting our heads around the challenge. Like I said in December, human beings love a deadline. We’re adrenaline junkies for good or ill.
So here are the highlights of my stubborn optimism. (Or my delusion if that sits more comfortably with your take on things.) I’m sharing them partly in a spirit of self care — I find writing stuff down always helps me process things. But if you read this and find them useful too then even better. Let me know.
Exhibit A — there’s something interesting going on in our legal system
I have never had a huge amount of faith in the legal system of this country. As far as I can see it mainly upholds the biases, prejudices and inequalities of our society with sometimes devastating consequences. (Just listen to Lady Unchained’s story about her experience of racism in the legal system if you’re any doubt of how flawed our system is. Or consider the pathetic history of tackling sexual and violent offences against women in this country.)
But in the limited context of the climate crisis, I have noticed some signs of a shift in attitude amongst those making legal decisions.
- In November, charges against more than 100 climate activists who had taken part in the protests in London in October were dropped because their arrests under Section 14 of the Public Order Act were ruled unlawful by the high court.
- In December cases against three protesters from April activity in London were dropped because the judge ruled that the arresting police officer did not have sufficient understanding of human rights legislation.
- At the end of January a high court judge dismissed a case against five climate protesters arrested at City Airport in October 2019 after the key police witness failed to attend (because he was on holiday).
- The inspiring legal charity — Client Earth — is taking the government to court over its decision to greenlight what would be Europe’s largest new gas power plant. As recently as six months ago I might have felt that this was a doomed enterprise. But …
- … at the end of February, via the amazing work of another legal charity — Plan B — the court of appeal blocked the planned expansion of Heathrow Airport and a third runway because it was not compatible with our commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement (thanks again Christiana!).
This last ruling is a game-changing decision that has potential to influence legal decisions around the world. The Paris Agreement becomes more than some nice words and hopeful ideas. Perhaps it has legal teeth. (Which is perhaps why Trump is so keen to step away from it?)
Of course, as the horrific experience of victims of the “Windrush Scandal” (aka plain old-fashioned British institutional racism) know only too well — having a case in law doesn’t guarantee fair treatment. Time will tell whether this legal shift — if it really is a thing — will influence the Government to do the right thing.
Which leads me on to …
Exhibit B — perhaps (some of) the people do have the power to make change happen
The second thing that is keeping my stubborn optimism bouyant so far in 2020 is the proliferation of Citizens Climate Assemblies appearing on the local, national and global political stage. My hope that our Governments and the current aparatus of government will yield meaningful results on the climate emergency in time to make a difference is very limited. Whether by design or incompetence, the slow or non-existent pace of change at a political level is one of the most depressing aspects of the current situation.
But maybe we don’t need to rely on that broken system to make the decisions we need to make to get ourselves out of this mess.
- In 2019 Emmanuel Macron responded creatively to the Gilets Jaunes protests and civil disobedience across France against what was perceived as an unfair “eco tax” by announcing a Convention Citoyenne. This citizens assembly has power to influence policy and make decisions on how France can meet its commitments on emmissions and other policies related to the climate crisis.
- In January 2020 the UK’s own Climate Assembly began meeting in Birmingham. While this gathering has no power to set policy or make binding decisions, it does give us all the opportunity to witness how a more inclusive form of democratic decision making (perhaps one more immune to the manipulation of the likes of Cambridge Analytica?) could work. If our politicians can’t or won’t do the right thing, engaging ordinary citizens directly in that work might be a brilliant way of shattering the ennui and cynicism that many feel about our political system?
- The Leeds Climate Change Citizens Jury that met at the end of 2019 made some extraordinary recommendations. Exactly the sort of thing we need to be doing. Just ordinary people who were given the facts and the time to consider what would be best for us all coming up with fair and practical solutions.
- This week I’ve heard news about a citizens assembly being organised in Brighton and Hove by my local council. What power or influence the assembly will have beyond its meetings across the coming spring remains to be seen. But it feels like an endeavour that’s worth my support and energy.
A step in the right direction that helps takes us into new territory where we all get to share in the thinking and decisions about how we face these terrible challenges coming towards us right now? I think so. And I also believe these assemblies could be the start of the social tipping point we need to see happening. An optimistic and positive counterbalance to the potential climate-related and ecological tipping points that we know aren’t very far away if we don’t pick up the pace and take hopeful action this year.
Ideas for ways to take hopeful action yourself
It’s worth checking whether there’s a citizens assembly happening near you. See how you can get involved. And if there isn’t, perhaps getting in touch with your local council and asking why not — especially if they’ve declared a climate emergency in the last 12 months.)
Read “The Future We Choose” by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnak. It’s full of brilliant ideas for taking practical, long-lasting action on your own that will make a big difference to the collective effort. (We have a Wilsome copy available to lend — just give us a wave.)
Find a space to talk to others about how you’re feeling. If you’re anywhere near to Brighton and Hove you’re very welcome at Wilsome’s next Five Minutes On The Apocalypse meet-up on 15 April. (More here to help you decide if it would be useful for you.)
Get involved with the Extinction Rebellion as it builds up to another global push to raise the alarm and put pressure on our Governments to step up to the challenge. You don’t have to get arrested. There are so many ways to support the effort and influence the direction of travel. You just have to turn up.
My plan is to write another post in early May 2020 with further stubbornly optimistic thoughts. But I realise that we’re all about to face a difficult time as Covid 19 takes hold. Wishing everyone who reads this well between now and then.
