Still a bit gloomy

Nothing’s going to change, is it? COP 26 is in 10 day’s time and already the US are stepping back on their commitment, looking instead for technological solutions rather than reducing fossil fuel usage by edict. His Borisness has said that capitalism will find a way. The thing is, and there’s a named rule for this and I’ve forgotten what it’s called, when you make something more efficient it gets used more. Air travel is a case in point. Our planes are massively more efficient than they were 50 years ago … as a result we use them massively more. As a trained civil engineer, it was always know that if you stick in a new road, rather than reduce traffic you increase it. The M25 is a case in point.

I love this lad so much. You can’t stop me from trying to protect his future.

And I am no climate scientist. And I/we are still part of the problem. You know we’re talking about flying away somewhere for a week in November (although due to various other constraints, that’s unlikely to happen). And Doris kicks out about 25 mpg – on diesel. That’s all a bit messy. And, yes, we will go skiing this January come what may. And, hopefully, fly somewhere to a beach for a month in the Spring. We are part of the problem. Although, in fairness, we do try very hard to offset our carbon footprint by using bikes, driving carefully, turning off lights (living in a tiny home) etc.

So what’s my point? If we, who I think are in the better half of people who consider the climate, still cannot curb their ambitions to travel (etc), then how can anyone expect your average company to deliver carbon neutral workspaces and products if they have to make a profit? Even with the best will in the world, we can’t expect firms to unilaterally make a loss – or go bust – in order to protect the planet. They have to be either told to by legislation … and some will fail … or they have to be incentivised to do so. That falls to governments. Absolutely. And the same’s for us. We need to be ordered to run our lives differently. In Germany you’re fined if you don’t recycle household waste correctly. That’s been around for decades and it should happen here. Maybe there should be stricter rules on people like us using big diesel vehicles for pleasure? If we are made to pay a hefty green tax for Doris, which could be used directly to fund solar farms (etc), then we would either pay the money or sell her to someone who wanted to afford it. Or perhaps we might have to pay for a government tracker which restricts/taxes miles driven? Who knows, in that case maybe we’d buy a smaller and more efficient van? And I’m sure you could think of scores more individual and collective incentives/rules to drag down carbon usage, which can only be set by government? But my point is, government has to lead here. It has to direct. Goodwill isn’t going to work. C and I are proof of that.

connect to later …

Or maybe you think it’s a hoax? Or that the asteroid may miss the planet? Or that technology will solve the problem, especially when it gets really bad and people from Sudan, who can no longer live in the increased heat and are without water, emigrate en masse into Egypt where a humanitarian crisis sparks a war with Israel which, in turn, leads to conflict with Iran. I’m a thriller writer. I make these things up for not much of a living.

So we’ll see what COP 26 delivers, shall we? The problem for me – and you know I’ll say this – is that I see this as an opportunity for Johnson to bluster and buffoon, making promises he has no intention of keeping, and jokes which are not funny and undermine his message. For him it’s about a world stage on which he might perform. It’s odd, but we’re catching up with the BBC2 Blair/Brown documentary (it’s very good). Tony Blair had faults, for sure, but he delivered the NI peace process where no-one else could. And he delivered it without lying or joking or writing a book on Churchill or having an affair or promising many things and delivering very little. We have had some very determined and hard working leaders in our time (Thatcher was surely one). Now, not so much.

I worry for COP 26.

Anyhow. We had C’s sister for a couple of nights, which was nice. She has two shouty Jack Russells which, in the end, were lovely. And I’m 27,000 words into book 8 and really loving it. Oh … and watch Click Bait on Netflix. It’s really good.

Stay safe. We’re still losing over 100 people a day which, if you think about it, is not really an acceptable situation. I said to C yesterday that we are going to get this disease. There is an inevitability about it now – especially here, when our daily case load is 5 times higher than any other European country. I just hope we get through it without any long term effects.