Thought for the week: Simon Tilley on
the climate nightmare
I
don’t know about you, but most of my bad dreams seem to involve helplessness.
Here’s one: I’m a tall chap on a coach going down a motorway. I’ve got the seat
just behind the driver, with plenty of legroom, and I’m comfortable, even
serene. Then I become aware that in the distance just over the hill there’s a
pile-up. The driver hasn’t noticed – indeed he’s actually accelerating a bit.
I
do nothing; I’m sure he knows what he’s doing. But as we get closer, I see it
is quite a big pile-up, and he still doesn’t seem to have noticed. I wonder
whether I should speak up. In the end I say, in a conversational tone: ‘Looks
like there’s a bit of a prang up ahead.’ He makes no reply. I repeat myself a
bit louder, and two things happen. He says ‘It’s just a bit of congestion’ and
one of my fellow passengers nudges me and points to a sign saying: ‘Do not
speak to the driver while the vehicle is in motion.’ ‘Please be quiet,’ she
says, ‘it’s not safe to speak to the driver and you’re upsetting my friend.
’You
know how these things go; no one else appears to have clocked what is becoming
a really obvious disaster up ahead or, if they have, seem oblivious to the
danger. They go on chatting and reading and sleeping, and when I try to get
their attention, they just look at me as if I were a television. And the coach
continues to accelerate…
Amazingly
no one seems to hear. One or two of the other passengers are looking at me with
mild, bovine interest, but most are remonstrating with me for disrupting their
journey. We reach the prow of the hill and I notice break fluid escaping onto
the road…the hill starts to send quickly…..And then, with about a hundred yards
to go before we pile into the destruction ahead, the driver applies the brake
but they are soft and spongey, we start to slow but far too little and too late………….
This
is where I wake up, to that overwhelming feeling of relief that it was just a
dream.
I
usually ask myself what led up to that dream. Often there’s a logical
explanation, based somewhere in reality. When you’re asleep, your brain sorts
stuff you’ve been dealing with, re-runs it by and sorts out my emotional
response while you’re offline. I went on a coach to London recently for the
last People’s Vote march, and I’ve been reading a book about climate breakdown,
(There is No Planet-B by Mike Berners-Lee) so that explains that.
Except,
of course, that isn’t really a dream. When I wake I don’t get a surge of
relief, just a feeling of despair at the reality: the clear and unanswerable
fact that we are on the brink of irreversible climate breakdown; the knowledge
that, in their anxiety not to be alarmist the media often sits quiet, our
scientists understated the danger and the ongoing complacency of some of our
politicians is obvious, even when faced by the reality of fires in California
and Australia, famine in South Sudan and floods in Fishlake. And I wish I’d
pushed the driver out of the way and taken over the steering wheel myself
earlier. The prow of the hill and the leaking brake fluid must have represented
a tipping point beyond which we can not retreat. These are approaching but we don’t
know when.
Everything
I have done over the last two decades in Hockerton Housing Projector
have been Reasonable and Proper. I’ve written articles, spoken to the media,
talked with friends and family, had polite meetings with my MP, written letters
and signed petitions. All to no avail. So, I fear, perhaps it’s not time to
stay polite, but get arrested, to make the point. And dare to dream of a
hopeful future. Nonviolent direct action is starting to turn the tide, but we don’t
have long.
Every
action we take counts, where we bank, where we shop and for what, how we vote
and what we choose to eat, how high we have the heating and how far we travel.
A better future can be envisaged but we need to act and act to make it happen
now.
If
you want to find out about some practical steps you can take especially if your
interested in low energy housing, environmental education and or renewable
energy please contact me. Or if you’d like to look at our new videos on
sustainability please click here.
Truth, Action and Assembly: Quick update – if you are local and want to hear about the climate emergency and what to do about it please come along to one of the local XR event https://twitter.com/xrnewark The last one at Southwell Library – XR Talk – Heading for Extinction and what to do about it ! Thursday 21st November at 7PM was well attended with over 40 people turning up.
It would be great if all political candidates in the area could attend! Simon Tilley the speaker would love to see James Baggaley, Jay Henderson, Robert Jenrick and David Watts there to face the facts and start to act upon them!!
Forward from Luke: Hey! I’m excited to host Ed Revil (traveling up from his small holding in Swansea) at the Meanwood Community Farm in Leeds this Thursday 21st Nov 18-20.00 it will be an inspiring and challenging presentation from his 20 years experience of building soils, capturing carbon and producing food using DIY appropriate technology to make bio char. Hope to see you there! Luke
In this folder there are a 14 climate change related lesson plans that will encourage students to think more sustainably. I have summarised these lesson plans so that they can be easily used for teaching purposes when school groups make site-visits to Hockerton Housing Project. For example:
Lesson 2 – Donald Trump Climate Quotes and Climate Denial
Summary:
Fake News or ‘What Donald Trump Said’ activity – great activity about 15-20 mins long
BBC News article on psychology of climate change denial. Students need to read this and complete an activity sheet asking them to summarise the article.
Google Docs Outline:
Starter: Trump
or Fake News – Show students the quotes from Donald Trump relating to climate
change. Ask the students to decide whether the quote is ‘Trump’ or ‘Fake News’.
Use the information sheet to elaborate on the meaning of his words. Ask
students their opinion of Trump’s attitude? Should he be allowed to have these
views?
Scientific Consensus –
Why does Climate Denial still exist? Explain the animated graph showing
temperature models for a variety of organisations around the world all showing
a similar trend. 98% of scientific evidence suggests recent climate change is
manmade. Is there still a debate?
News Article –
Brain Biases. Direct students to read the BBC news article. Using the worksheet
students should read and then reread, pulling out different pieces of
information as they go.
What’s the main reason for our
inaction? – Students should rank the suggested factors
and in pairs, develop reasons for why they think this might be the most
powerful factor.
Open the document below too see my summary of all 14 lesson plans.
This is a great book which gives the carbon facts about our consumption in a relatively easy way to understand. Mike has covered all aspects of life including a detailed first chapter on food but also travel, money, investment and values. Whilst he is very clear about what needs to be achieved to prevent 1.5 degrees of climate change he offers choices about our consumption in a way that left me feeling empowered and not guilty.
This is an essential read for us all! My response to this book has been to give a copy to all in the executive team at my hospital and to all of our current cohort of medical students. Those with the power to make high value decisions and the senior leaders of the future need to be thinking about this. In between , each one of us can use this book to guide us to reduce our carbon emissions urgently. I urge you to buy it, read it and pass it on to someone else.
Helena Tilley
Synopsis
Feeding the world, climate change, biodiversity, antibiotics, plastics – the list of concerns seems endless. But what is most pressing, what are the knock-on effects of our actions, and what should we do first? Do we all need to become vegetarian? How can we fly in a low-carbon world? Should we frack? How can we take control of technology? Does it all come down to population? And, given the global nature of the challenges we now face, what on Earth can any of us do?
Fortunately, Mike Berners-Lee has crunched the numbers and plotted a course of action that is practical and even enjoyable. There is No Planet B maps it out in an accessible and entertaining way, filled with astonishing facts and analysis. For the first time you’ll find big-picture perspective on the environmental and economic challenges of the day laid out in one place, and traced through to the underlying roots – questions of how we live and think. This book will shock you, surprise you – and then make you laugh. And you’ll find practical and even inspiring ideas for what you can actually do to help humanity thrive on this – our only – planet.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9781108439589 Number of pages: 302 Weight: 380 g Dimensions: 216 x 138 x 17 mm
Its important for movers and shackers to read this book. We gave a copy to our MP at the Mass Lobby in London. Other people had opinions too!
