Here in Windsor the sun is shining (for now) and spring has sprung, with this season’s show of bluebells being the best I’ve ever seen. So it felt like time for a more upbeat blog post after all the seriousness and passings away that have featured heavily of late.
I’m also going to be unashamedly focused on my home country, the UK, in this blog post, because for once, in the midst of our Brexit morass, we have some good news.
Greta Thunberg has been in town, and along with the rest of her cohort that have been taking part in school strikes, she has shaken things up, and shamed her seniors into action. (I recommend her full speech, where she pulls no punches – for example: “we [my generation] probably don’t even have a future any more. Because that future was sold so that a small number of people could make unimaginable amounts of money. It was stolen from us every time you said that the sky was the limit.”)
Extinction Rebellion used civil disobedience to powerful effect, opening the door to conversations with politicians who are finally pulling their heads out of the dark hole that is Brexit and facing up to the climate emergency.
The Committee on Climate Change has come up with a plan on how the UK can reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 – maybe even sooner.
Of course, talk is cheap, but it really does feel as if change is afoot in our small corner of the world. We may be a minnow compared with the great white sharks of China, India, Russia and the US, but along with the rest of the Carbon Neutrality Coalition we have a key role to play in demonstrating that developed countries can realistically set an intention for net zero.
Words may not be sufficient, but they are necessary. And now they must lead to action.
Other Stuff:
If you’re into nature documentaries (I nearly wrote “nature porn”, and then I remembered my mother reads this blog) then you will love Earth From Space, a stunning new series from the BBC that marries up satellite imagery with footage shot from the ground, to dazzling effect.
We don’t know how much is left for the world as we know it, so enjoy it while you can.
Whist not everyone will enjoy the style of Greta Thunburg…(I do) she is a fabulous young voice of hope for the future. Without rattling the cages of politicians and shaking the population out of the continued apathy and disregard for the destruction of our beautiful planet it seems we are destined for catastrophe.
BRAVO! Greta, and at the other end of the age scale David Attenborough, for being advocates for caring for the future of all that is wonderful about our planet.
As you say, David, we need all our champions – no matter their age, nationality, or whatever!