In the Chaos of Post-Brexit Politics, the Planet Suffers
Sir James Dyson was not afraid to be censorious in the midst of the EU referendum, but even he would be proud of the strength of the leadership vacuum that engulfs Westminster in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. With every major English party other than the Lib Dems set to be looking inwards at their own leadership for several months to come, the forces of nature will wait for no one as the climate hangs in the balance.
2016 is already likely to be the warmest year on record (despite the upcoming La Niña), and if that phrase sounds familiar, it’s because you heard it last year, and the year before. Much effort was made to make the Paris Agreement accept that warming must be limited to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels for the worst effects of climate change to be avoided — receiving little more than lip service — but we’ve probably already reached 1 degree and counting. For the political will to be brought about and for the mass mobilisation needed to restore a safe climate to be put in place, time is running out. Now more than ever we need strong, principled leadership, and now more than ever we are lacking it.
But, alas, the government is suffering from more than just a leadership vacuum. Its energy and climate policies are in disarray. When it suits them politically, positive targets and sound bites come flowing bountifully from Whitehall, but as soon as the media lose interest they will inherently seek to regress to the dangerous business-as-usual policies one comes to expect. The government promised the phase out of coal power stations by 2025, yet now have permission to tear up Druridge Bay for a huge open cast coal mine. They celebrate the emissions targets they are bound by, yet are desperate to risk our communities and our future by forcing through fracking at any cost, ignoring local democracy and sanctioning corporate bullying of peaceful protesters. Support for renewables is mostly being gutted rather than bolstered, and the ongoing shambles at the Hinkley Point C show that new nuclear is a white elephant. Carbon capture and storage as an answer is being all but abandoned. No wonder they’re desperate for fracking, how else do they plan to keep the lights on, let alone deal with the climate crisis?
They have no answers. A lack of public scrutiny and a lack of a strong, united official opposition has let them get away with having no coherent energy or climate change policy whatsoever. With the mess that British politics is now in, this lack of public scrutiny will grow ever greater: the real winner in this post-Brexit turmoil is the complete indifference and inaction of the Department for Energy and Climate Change.
David Cameron has already announced that the triggering of Article 50 and the decision about airport expansion will be delayed until after a new Prime Minister is elected, and inevitably other climate matters will be kicked into the long grass until the sun is shining again. Both, in their own ways, could or will have a substantial impact on the planet, and in the meantime uncertainty in the energy market is damaging the transition even further, but as long as doing our duty to safeguard future generations continues to be seen as an unimportant fringe issue that is safe to be dismissed with empty sound bites and missed targets this will continue past the tipping point.
What can be done? Pressure. The party that promised to be the ‘greenest government ever’ would not be given that title by anyone reputable, but it is an image that they don’t want to lose and a mantra they will repeat if it will look good on the TV; if the public is seen to care passionately about something they have shown that they will back down in the name of electability. It is hard to make headlines in the aftermath of Brexit, but the environmental movement must stay resolute and consistently push for what is right. Instead of succumbing to bitter division, the Labour party, other opposition parties, trade unions and grassroots campaigners could be united around a big push to expose the government’s failed policy and force them to change course — it is possible, and it would be popular. Like an army base being re-purposed as a nature reserve, the endless airtime opposition politicians use for squabbling could be used for good.
Time waits for no man, and nor does the planet — the clock is ticking. The government may have planted their collective heads in the sand, but with all the political turmoil in the world we must not allow ourselves to become distracted from the climate struggle. Not only must we be ready to fight the specific challenges ahead, such as the potential bonfire of environmental protections following brexit, fracking at all costs and short-sighted airport expansion, we must constantly remind ourselves of the impending nature of the challenge of humanity’s sustainability. With the way the issue is treated by the mainstream media, it is easy to forget that it is a time sensitive issue, and the more time we spend revelling in political chaos the more peril we put ourselves in. Future generations will not forgive us taking our eyes off the ball (the big blue ball we’re obliviously burning alive).
