Today I heard that a group of very well meaning doctors were calling for a campaign of civil disobedience in order to force government to act on climate change. On the face of it, it sounds very sensible and really only builds on the Extinction Rebellion movement's approach. But my question is, 'What's the point?'.
Whilst climate change deniers would disagree, humankind has been stoking climate change since the start of the industrial revolution, some 200 years ago and this begs the question, can we do anything (in the short term) to undo the damage? I'd say no. In fact, I'd go further and say that we are, as a species, quite completely fucked. And on what, I hear you ask, do you base this rather bleak assessment of our future?
I base it on a couple of specifics, firstly, that the curve of climate change (even if we stopped all industrial activity today) would take a similar period to return to 'normal' as it has to reach its current level ie 200 years. This also implies that we would catapult ourselves, humankind in general, back to a society c1800. This means no cars, no washing machines, no IVF, no McDonalds, no disposable anything. I doubt that I could survive that shock and I'm pretty certain that 'civil society' couldn't either, and governments know this. Don't think that they don't and don't think that 2050 hasn't been set as a 'zero carbon' target for a very good reason - its probably the shortest period that government considers the goal to be achievable whilst maintaining order.
And the second reason for my suggesting that we are completely and totally fucked is population. Climate change is a function of human activity - more people, more activity, more climate change. So, what's the answer to this one? Less children is what. But who is going to go for that one? Not Mothercare, certainly not the Pope, who needs population increase to maintain market share. Certainly not the free market capitalists who need new markets or increasing markets to keep the greed boat afloat.
So there you have it. We are totally fucked and until people wake up to that fact I doubt that anything meaningful will happen. But wait, help is at hand, Waitrose are trialing refillable muesli containers in 20 stores. WooHoo, we are saved.