Protest at COP26.
Blah, blah, blah was Greta
Thunberg’s telling comment on
last year’s COP26.By Jeff Rudin
This is an edited version of an article first
published in Daily Maverick.T
HE 27TH MEETING OF THE UN’S
Conference of the Parties –
otherwise known as COP – is now
only months away. So it is timely
to ask: who benefits from these gatherings
of world leaders who regather each year to
renew their repeated pledges to tackle
climate change? Blah, blah, blah was Greta
Thunberg’s telling comment on last year’s
COP26.
Now, more than at any period
during the United Nations climate change
involvement, we need a critical look. It has
been 50 years since the first international
conference on the environment, the
Stockholm Conference in 1972. That
provides a long lens for evaluating the
global climate change scorecard.The sky is burning
The two most notable changes during this
extensive period are (1) the world leaders
attending the COPs now, overwhelmingly,
make explicit their acceptance of the
science of climate change; and (2) this
acceptance is mirrored by the hundreds
of millions of people worldwide who have
actually experienced it. Only a short while
ago, these were still the distant “extreme
weather events” predicted to be the new
normal, unless appropriate measures were
taken urgently.
Climate change is now a reality to
many South Africans. The deadly and
devastating floods in and around Durban
this year are not forewarnings of climate
change. They are the lived nightmare of
those who survived them. Additionally, the
enduring drought in and around Nelson
Mandela Bay is threatening a zero-water
supply to millions of people.
Climate change, moreover, is now
a fearful reality for virtually everyone in
Europe, and many parts of Asia and the US.We South Africans have our own
problems, and the rest of the world is far
away, so we may forget. But the British
newspaper, The Guardian, reported on 16
July 2022: “‘Avalanche of fires’: what the
front pages around the world say”.
On the same day it reported: “UK
Braces For Record Temperature As First
Ever Red Heat Warning Comes Into
Effect.”
The next day, the same newspaper
was full of reports such as “Scotland
imposes Speed Restrictions on Rail
Routes”; “Rail journey times may
double”. These came amid fears of rails
buckling in the heat. And for the National
Health Service, “‘Crumbling’ NHS
buildings can’t adapt to heatwave”.
And, on the following day, 18th July,
The Guardian carried an article, “The
Terrifying Truth: Britain’s A Hothouse,
But One Day 40C Will Seem Cool”. This
was by Bill McGuire, a professor emeritus
of geophysical and climate hazards
at London University’s UCL. McGuire
explained:And this is just the beginning.
When our children are our age,
they will yearn for a summer
as ‘cool’ as 2022, because
long before the century’s end,
40°C-plus heat will be nothing
to write home about in the
climate-mangled world they
inherit.In “The Sky is Frying”, Jeffrey
St Clair, US author and editor of
Counterpunch, wrote about the
Armageddon happening at the same time
throughout the US.
Bill McGuire argues that we have
good reason to be scared, and we have even
better reason to “channel this emotion
into action”. However, instead of theimmediately required action, there is only
silence.
George Monbiot, the British author,
Guardian columnist and political activist,
asks, “Can we talk about it now?”. He is
referring to:the subject most of the media
and most of the political class
has been avoiding for so long.
You know, the only subject that
ultimately counts – the survival
of life on Earth. Everyone knows,
however carefully they avoid
the topic, that, beside it, all the
topics filling the front pages and
obsessing the pundits are dust.
Never has a silence been so loud
or so resonant.This is not a passive silence.
It is ... a fierce commitment to
distraction and irrelevance in the
face of an existential crisis. It is a
void assiduously filled with trivia
and amusement, gossip and
spectacle. Talk about anything,
but not about this. But while the
people who dominate the means
of communication frantically
avoid the subject, the planet
speaks, in a roar becoming
impossible to ignore.Climate crisis ignored
But the governments of what they like
to call democracies have ignored the
roar. Even worse, they treat dealing with
the climate crisis as little more than an
optional extra, a nice to have, provided
other pressing circumstances allow.
Removing whatever economic and political
threat they see Russia posing is far more
important.
Thus, they are ready to equip andCLIMATE CRISIS