Storm coming

We once thought stupidity and ignorance were the result of a lack of access to information, believing that with proper recourse to data, we could collectively lift ourselves from the various mires of modern living. But then a near limitless font of knowledge (and the odd nudey pic) arrived with the internet aaaaand.... proved us wrong. Turns out we're actually just a bunch of argumentative idiots. Divisions rent by lightning rods such as Brexit, Trump and crucially, climate change, bring this unwelcome truth to the fore. 

Whilst we place endless faith in precise application of the sciences to deliver us our food, build our cars and safely land our planes, when those same sciences tell us we might actually need to reconsider what we eat, how often we drive or whether we fly, suddenly for many, they become inconvenient, irrelevant or inflammatory. As people voice concerns for the planet, message boards light up with righteous indignation, knee-jerk denial, genuine selfishness and stultifying incomprehension. Despite the fact tornadoes, earthquakes, famines and tidal waves won't give a shit for our politics as they shuffle us off en masse, we seem to be more divided then ever. 

We really should be doing more with what we already know but we're too busy taking misguided potshots at one another on social media to coalesce for significant change. It's not so much a lack of access to the facts as an unwillingness to engage with them or disseminate them fairly from all the bullshit and agendas, our own included. In the new world, apparently opinions are just as valid as certified data, prejudices as powerful as essential truths. 

We love the sounds of our own online voices, especially if they might get us a pat on the pack from a like-minder or rile up someone whose own comment (or mere existence) got under our skin.

And nobody likes the sound of their own voice more than Jeremy fucking Clarkson. The eternally smug presenter whose career has endorsed fossil fuels far more successfully than it has denim, publicly condemned climate activist Greta Thunberg's recent UN appearance in which she passionately, angrily called out the previous generations - the politicians, the policy-makers, the leaders of industry and nations – for their inaction on climate change. 

The 59 year old, 6 ft 4 inch millionaire appeared deeply offended by the outrage of a tiny 16 year old with Asperger's who had the courage (or in his words, “temerity”) to sail across the treacherous waters of the Atlantic in a carbon-neutral yacht to voice her concern about ohhh, the potential end of life on earth. The grown man who punched a Top Gear producer because his food wasn't hot called a vegan activist depriving herself of a range of modern comforts “spoilt”. How dare she be outraged, he reasoned, when she hadn't built the boat herself?... AND it had a backup diesel engine??! 

Of course. Because if you can't circumnavigate the world on wings you sprouted from your own body to make a point about climate responsibility, then the only remaining option is to shut the fuck up and travel round spraying aerosol into the sky and burning tyres. If it ain't a perfect solution, it's not worth bothering people. Let it all burn. The fact that the existence of a BACKUP diesel engine shouldn't negate Thunberg's achievement or intentions, alongside the fact the boat didn't actually have a backup diesel engine are beside the point. The message these days is clear. When entering public discourse, even as a “journalist”, never let the truth or application of any reasonable level of nuance get in the way of being a big, self-aggrandizing, xenophobic, misogynistic, tight jeans wearing, crap shirt owning, jowly, red faced tosser.... I think that's the message anyway. 

A similar disregard for rational discourse can be levelled at those haphazardly attacking climate protesters such as striking students who deem it's more important to draw awareness to saving the planet than learning the pythagorean theorem that 99% of said planet never use..... ever. 

Yes, some of those involved just wanted to get out of P.E. Yes, some of them may have drunk Coke from a plastic bottle in the last week, and yes, some of them probably enjoyed the media attention, but when entire, crucially important movements are summarily dismissed with comments like “Oh, but they're happy to use mobile phones imported from China”, it makes you wonder how we as a race got smart enough to ever invent mobile phones. 

Picking tiny holes in huge issues and universal truths rather than even contemplating what they're about is deeply unhelpful, though understandable to an extent. It's existentially terrifying to consider spiralling waste, exploding populations, increasingly savage natural disasters, droughts, floods and depleted resources, but our best chance to do something is to collectively accept at least to some extent, the reality of the situation. Covering our ears and humming, or pointing out that the not-humming people actually doing something have suspicious, communist-looking ears is not going to cut it.
It doesn't help that we're so often on the defensive these days, entrenching ourselves into positions we might not wholeheartedly believe in because we don't like how we're made to feel by the “other” side, be it guilty, uninformed, pompous or inferior. Proper dialogue falls by the wayside and battle lines are drawn. We double down. Everyone shouts, nobody listens.

Society's perceptions of what is and isn't acceptable are in constant flux and contention. It's a complicated world and we're a complicated lot, full of flaws and moral contradictions, different strengths and weaknesses. Some social justice warriors sniff cocaine. Some vegetarians drop litter. Some meat-eaters recycle. Some vegans are homophobic. Some politicians tell the truth. 
It's impossible to “get it right” all the time, but tearing others down on one point to deflect from an entirely different point doesn't serve a constructive dialogue and can't hope to catalyse the positive change we need. We're only here once and of course we want to enjoy ourselves while we are but that shouldn't stop us thinking about what's left behind when we're gone. 

We can't do it all, but we all need to do something, even if that's simply getting out of the way of those with the bottle to stand up, sanctimonious as they may sometimes appear. I'd tolerate a little sanctimony if it saved the world.   

Let's all keep our opinions to themselves when they don't align with the facts. 

Climate change is real: FACT

Jeremy Clarkson is a tosser: FACT

Ian Greenland

Make a change: www.activesustainability.com/climate-change/6-things-you-can-do-to-prevent-climate-change/