On Bird-song and Flower Power, Starlight and Simulacra..

The sound of bird-song coming into our bedroom early on a May morning, a sky-full of stars on a clear night with Jupiter casting a shining track on a calm sea, butterflies flitting in the garden, wild flowers blooming on all sides, only the

Bluebells by Fiona.

occasional vehicle to disturb the peace and belch forth noxious fumes as you walk along the roads - such are the joys that sustain us in our island home, and more than compensate for a lack of the 'joys of civilisation', that sadly often constitute so many ways of contributing to the multiple catastrophes that are engulfing our beautiful world. Yet how might it be possible to so turn the situation around that the joys of nature could become once more the normal human patrimony, rather than the privilege of an increasingly beleaguered minority?

The BBC brings us* the happy tidings that the British Committee on Climate Change (CCC) maintains this can be done at no added cost from previous estimates. If other countries follow the UK, there’s a 50-50 chance of staying below the recommended 1.5C temperature rise by 2100.' Brilliant news indeed! We have a 50-50 chance of avoiding outright catastrophe, if other countries follow the UK! That's a good one, considering the UK is doing all it can to withdraw from constructive cooperation with its neighbours, who at least happen to be a small bit more switched on than the relative from across the ocean whom they are about to welcome to their shores (and may he be welcomed with huge climate and proEU demos). 

If the EU were not distracted by the Brexit folly and mesmerized by the emergeance of the 'Far Right' across Europe, we might all be getting around to a sane and humane policy with regard to both the climate and the migration crisis. I mean, for instance, a kind of Marshal Plan for North Africa, aimed at creating employment there and producing hydrogen from all that sunshine in the deserts. It seems to me that the missing ingredient for the transition to electric power, practically speaking, remains the production and distribution of hydrogen, especially for fuel cells, because lithium batteries and the current means of generating electricity will not hack it by themselves.

Said the lead author of the CCC report, a Mr Stark, to the Beeb - “This report would have been absolutely inconceivable just a few years ago. People would have laughed us out of court for suggesting that the target could be so high.” Meanwhile Aunty Beeb herself goes on her sweet 'even-handed' way - 'Some say the proposed 2050 target for near-zero emissions is too soft, but others will fear the goal could damage the UK's economy.'  So much for this brave attempt to face stark reality!

At this stage I must quote extensively from Tom Jackson's** Babbling of Green Fields, since he puts the matter so very well:- 'What do human beings generally do when they are faced with a challenge they know that they must meet but nevertheless do not wish to do so? They rarely say 'oh blow it, I'm going to enjoy myself and hang the consequences'. Such indulgences of clear-sighted moral responsibility are reserved for only small crimes. Faced with great ones, they generally avoid the issue by inventing simulacra that give the impression that the issue is being dealt with when in fact it is not, and the more grand ceremony and trumpet blowing with which the simulacrum is launched the better it fulfils its function. The climate agreement reached in Paris in December 2015 is, I fear, just such a masterpiece of moral evasion. Even the UK, among the more responsible countries, is far behind on its commitments (in July 2018). The very next day after the politicians returned home from Paris full of self-congratulation, Amber Rudd, then under-secretary for the environment, announced that subsidies for renewable fuels would be cut while those for fossil fuels would be maintained. 2017 was the worst year yet for carbon emissions and 2018 has been worse.'

Violets by Fiona.

But what then are we to do about it? How are we to cope? Being overcome with anxiety and despair, or carried away by anger, are neither of them going to do any good. It is worth recalling that human life has always existed on a knife-edge,  subject to all kinds of disasters. If we are now faced with a more total and all-consuming kind of multiple catastrophe than has ever been known before, we are also gifted with the means to avert it, and a level of awareness unheard of in the past. If only we can somehow find the will and way to rise to this challenge, the possibility of a whole new and magnificent  era for humanity beckons. Never have the stakes been so astronomically high, and it is a wonderful privilege to be alive in these times. Immense responsibility falls to those who glimpse this to spread the word, to communicate it and inspire others to do so.

How might we do this? We must start by admitting the reality, and then changing our lives as best we possibly can: - working at ameliorating the situation in any way we can, while always seeking truth and avoiding those deceptive simulacra, into which indeed our entire political and economic set-up is in danger of deteriorating; - learning to really appreciate that wealth does not buy happiness and there is indeed a kind of poverty which truly enriches, while the notion that any kind of well-being can endure, economic or otherwise, while we continue to decline to acknowledge the damage that we are inflicting on the natural world upon which it all depends, is utterly absurd. Enjoy and cherish those wild flowers and butterflies, that birdsong, the soft star-light on the sea, and above these, the company of those with whom we are gifted to share them!

Flowers on the Rocks by Joe.

**http://thomj.co.uk/
*https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48122911