Saturday 16 November 2019

Greta's Conundrum


Combine climate science denial with calls for lower taxes and it's not surprising we get floods.

Greta Thunberg is doing her level best to persuade people to change their lives so as to have less of an impact on the environment, but there's no escaping the fact that we're trapped in a world where fossil fuels provide the vast majority of our power - and we can't escape from this situation as individuals without huge sacrifice. Even then, unless we all adopt Greta's position, nothing much will change quickly enough.


Mass protest to force changes to government policy worldwide is the only answer in the short time frame we have left - we're like drug addicts begging reluctant health professionals to help us overcome our addiction.

We can buy as many electric cars as we want, but without a national network of charging points, they're next to useless. Only government can co-ordinate this and, like it or not, only by using public money and higher taxes, despite the moaning of those who will never change - those for whom there's a refusal to acknowledge there's a monster at the door, for whom self is more important than planet and for whom lower taxes are a priority. These people have to be dragged, kicking and screaming with righteous indignation, into a more sustainable world and change to government policy is the only tool with which to do that.

That can't be achieved, however, with a government for which lower taxe is the priority and wants to turn the UK into an offshore sweatshop. It would be like putting a government that has presided over the worst ever hospital waiting times in charge of the NHS...


1 comment:

Roger said...

The type of change that you are suggesting has to be led from the top and, unfortunately, the majority of our politicians are too self focused to want what is required. Their parties are all on a roller coaster ride for power and climate change legislation is not popular politics.