Five years ago I was very motivated to get involved and do my bit for the local part of the world I am in, after realising that my children started worrying about climate change and their future. Let me tell you my story:
I joined the Green Party, ran as a candidate, became a town councillor and even led the party for a while. My journey through local and some national politics left me disillusioned and frustrated. Nay, angry!
After four years of being a town councillor, the fruits of my labour are: a draft environmental policy and five planters on the high street (they do look lovely although they totally fail in their primary purpose of stopping others from parking on the pavement and blocking pedestrians!).
While we came close to celebrating the first green councillor on the city council, we usually came second and often third. Once beaten by somebody who seems to have stood as a dare more than as somebody with the required vision and interest in serving their community. So much for politics.
I can understand anyone who wants to punch a Tory, although they are now called Labour. It’s all messed up to the point where starting over with a fresh parchment, a full cup of ink and version two of the Magna Carta sounds like a solid plan of action.
I was trying to foster a social circle of people wanting to take action, especially to counter the misinformation put out by the companies and people responsible for climate change. While I am happy to see this group continue and others spring up with various focuses, like enacting a circular economy, it all pales by what I see when I zoom out of my bubble a little.
New build developments spring up everywhere around here, where formerly barley was grown to feed livestock, now many families reside much like livestock cramped into tight cages. Sadly, the quality of these homes is as terrible as animal cages, if reports of their inhabitants and YouTube videos of building inspectors are to be believed.
But that’s not news. What surprised me is that nobody seems surprised at all by the many broken promises from developers about connecting cyclists and pedestrians with other parts of the city or simply mustering a mobile phone tower to connect people to each other in a digital way.
None or very few buses run, hardly any pedestrian crossings exist – even near the schools and a disgusting level of ignorance by the developers for the needs of the people choosing to live in their developments is on full display.
I sat on committees and participated in meetings about planning and the environment. What I found made me upset because as a town council, and even the city council, we pretty much rely on easily broken promises and have very little by way of holding companies to account.
But hey, now we have a five year plan to get us to net zero by 2030 and look at all the funding the city council makes available to groups to meet and generally participate in the discourse required for everyone to think stuff is happening.
Instead of green roofs, better and more frequent public transport, a focus on renewable energy and micro-grids, we have more high density concrete and steel, less public transport and users of alternatives to cars (e.g. people walking or – gasp – cycle) are penalised. I cannot walk to the local center without worrying about getting run over because there are no safe crossing opportunities. I see people, especially those with kids, shopping or limited mobility, struggle daily.
Anyhow, that’s just people – who cares when corporations can pay taxes and Public Relations companies can make it all look like progress despite evidence to the contrary.
Let’s talk about the real meat of the issue: climate change is not a single player sport. It’s a team effort, by which I mean the world. All of us. Together. Trump, et al say bugger that and promptly proceed to undo decades of progress towards even the smallest changes in the right direction.
When the world’s biggest economies turn away and the multi-million dollar, global PR machine of the oil and gas industry (and their cohorts) kick up a gear to continue to mislead and manipulate people, then what use are five concerned citizens championing recycling efforts?
Don’t get me started on our capacity to simply recycle stuff – or the lack thereof. It’s despicable what is happening with our waste. And consumerism in general I guess, but numbers go up means shareholders and finance ministers are happy, so let’s keep buying stuff instead of fixing, reusing or recycling.
The impact of climate change is more and more visible yet the misleading promo pieces by Big Oil and some countries’ governments make it hard to see the woods for the trees. Bad effects are felt everywhere and their ferocity has been steadily increasing – more than even the most pessimistic scientists forecasted.
It’s time to face the truth: we are losing this fight. We are up against enemies not just of nature (who simply shrugged one would imagine) but people in general (or everyone but the 1% one ponders). We have no chance and we are fresh out of time to worry about it. It’s time to shift our focus on survival.
Here’s the forecast for the next five years, you know, until we wanted to be at ’net zero':
More sustained and deeper global droughts and desertification, resulting in higher food prices, less availability of key staples and more people fleeing their parts of the world, hoping for shelter elsewhere (hint: it’s up north/west hemisphere-wise).
Extreme weather events like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and storms are increasing in both frequency and intensity. Leading to whole parts of countries quickly becoming uninhabitable and uninsurable.
That’s just two key areas where we have seen the impact increase over the last five years, where regular Jo Smith from down the road notices, while staring at empty shelves and emptier pockets.
People will quickly get upset when food prices and or access to drinkable water becomes less easy to attain. There’s going to be a tipping point when even quiet British people will have had enough and start throwing things at their government.
Breathe a sigh of relief, for we are not quite there yet. Although our government is doing its best to alienate those who voted for them, believing that they somehow were on the people’s side, we have some miles left to career downhill before we jump the cliff.
So, if we can’t beat the bad guys (and yes, people run corporations – not the other way around) and our governments are useless to the point where they might as well openly say they are a subsidiary of the big corporations that fund them, what do we do?
I think it is time to focus on small communities again, becoming more self-sufficient and generally adapting to uncertainty and scarcity. I include empathy and critical thinking in the latter for good measure.
We can’t live the prepper life because even with a billionaire island to ride out the worst, we need each other. Those 1% who will run to their hideouts will have a rude awakening when the doctors, nurses, engineers and other staff refuse to let them in. You can’t eat money, but you can eat rich people’s food.
OK, that was terrible even by my standards. In all seriousness, we need a community of people that look out for each other. We need good ol’ fashioned values back and to mean something we need to actually practise them, instead of posting on social media. Fuck social media. Let’s do local media again!
Let’s meet in public houses (could call them pubs, for short) and make our own future (with blackjack and hookers). Perhaps sans gambling and prostitution if you insist but know that people want distraction, so prepare for a vibrant neighbourhood black market of illicit entertainment options.
We need to become more resilient despite the frustrating local and regional policies and governance. We need to stand up and elect more independent, non-politicians to reject the status quo and fight for our right to determine how we want to survive and thrive despite all the crap that’s wrong with the world. Give me a person who is brave enough to knock on doors in their neighborhood to promise they will get the local bus stop back or speak out against the lack of support for our public health.
If you take away one thing from this rambling excuse of an article, please let it be this: It’s not over until we lose hope.
Know you are loved 💚 KYAL
