No Hiding Place

The Raft of The Medusa - Théodore Géricault 1818-1819

 

 

 Further to yesterdays post on the urban village - 'Don't Brick It' - Norman Foster pitched in on the topic in yesterdays Guardian Journal, referring to the 15-minute-city concept and extending the discussion to the greening of the reduced-vehicle urban space created. Green spaces have been created and used in cities for a long time, the need for them never more relevant or pressing than now. He cites the idea of effectively recycling the spaces left by the missing vehicles: car parks being used for growing food to supply the local 'village'; closing down traffic lanes and turning them over to pedestrians and cyclists etc.

I for one am a great fan of these ideas and as I said in the previous post, it's something that I took to heart a very long time ago, back in the days when climate change was being ignored and anyone making the case for it seen as merely cranky and out of touch with reality. Fifty years on and the picture is so, so different. That climate change is with us and accelerating is acknowledged by all but the real cranks; the flat-earthers, preppers and anti-vaxxers inhabiting the less-salubrious corners of social media and the internet in general. Convincing them of a reality other than their alternate ones might prove to be difficult if not impossible. That their opinions matter little, mediates their impact on issues and makes them less worrying. That there are some in positions of great authority who hold these kinds of views, is more troubling, however.

It will take a great effort of collective will and a great deal of ingenuity, research and plenty of hard cash to turn the tide and restore the planet's equilibrium. We need these people on side and backing the cause, although certain individuals are probably beyond the pale. If it could be said to have a good side to it, the pandemic has at least proved one thing: that those in power are powerless before a global crisis, while at the same time we are perfectly willing and capable as a species to act collectively and globally in response to a big enough crisis. Unfortunately, this unity is unlikely to obtain once the virus is contained or its effects mediated.

Tribalism means nothing in the face of an unseen organism running riot through the global population; cooperation the only obvious way to move forward. Climate change, however, occurs at a macro-level, complicated by geo-politics and economics - out of the scope and off the radar of most individuals - the threat of Covid-19 on the other hand is immediately perceivable on a micro-level: it is personal and acute, unlike the abstracted, obfuscating layers of climate, economics and power politics, where the causes often seem remote from us as individuals; third-party and apparently chronic in nature.

What is a given though, is that the potential death toll from unaddressed climate change will make the current pandemic look like an outbreak of the Common Cold. We will need to draw down heavily on some of the species-collective behaviours we have shown we are eminently capable of and turn our thoughts and efforts toward seriously addressing the damage we are doing to our home and ourselves.

No-one is exempt, no-one can hide; and the necessary changes have to happen swiftly before we reach the inevitable tipping point. There will be no way back after that.