Putting the Environment on the Agenda

I don’t usually care for the messages of religious leaders, but last week Pope Francis actually had something sensible to say about the environment. It’s good to see a major figure of any kind championing the need for environmental sustainability. Among many proclamations in the 180 page document, Pope Francis said in his encyclical that we could be handing down to future generations a world of “debris, desolation and filth.”

Climate change can often seem morbid and unrealistic, only the stuff of Hollywood disaster movies. But rising temperatures and oceans, extreme weather events, the desolation of wildlife and eco systems, are all things that should be taken seriously as long term human impact on the planet. These are things that are laughed at and dismissed by deniers and politicians of the right, but people who deny that climate change is not happening at all are decades behind in the debate. It is happening. It is an insidious process that, although cannot be felt directly for most of us now, poses long term consequences for our planet. A vast and meticulous branch of research exists on climate science and it all points to the same conclusion: the planet is warming. The debates that exist now are whether this is a natural occurrence potentially caused by the sun; and, more importantly, what needs to be done about it.

But while climate change is a complicated and contested subject (even at times morbid), the idea of environmental sustainability is very simple and very sensible.

The planet we live on has a limited number of natural resources (coal, oil, gas, trees, fertile ground, rivers and lakes etc) for a finite number of people. It’s difficult to moderate our use of resources without drastically changing the way we live in the twenty first century. What we need to do is come up with new sources of energy, new farming techniques, and new ways of living to gradually wean ourselves off of unrenewable resources. This is a task for every human being and it will take creativity, innovation and experimentation to get there.

Renewable energy (usually in the form of solar panels, wind turbines and hydro power) has proved to be an effective way to produce power without diminishing natural resources or producing greenhouse gases. Renewable energy works if governments facilitate it. The UK is a world leader in this field and last year in Scotland nearly half of our electricity came from renewable sources, up from 20% in 2007. This has to continue. Renewable energy isn’t just to cut down greenhouse gas emissions, but it’s an investment in securing the energy for our future – coal, oil, gas will all run out eventually, how prepared are we for when it does?

Governments have an important role to play when it comes to creating a sustainable world to live in. But do you ever notice how world leaders often assemble, usually in the outer regions of rich countries, pose for a group photo, and claim to be engaged in ‘climate talks’? Government responses to environmental issues have been ceremonial: they make up targets around a dinner table that they know will never be met and call it a job well done; news headlines create the illusion of action and we sink further into complacency. Governments (those we elected to find solutions to these problems) are failing - what did you expect? There will always be a more important issue than environmental concern: when did a solid green policy ever win an election – when, even, was a truly meaningful green policy ever in a manifesto?

But maybe governments don’t have the answers. The world we live in belongs to the people and perhaps we are the ones to save it – part of the problem and so part of the solution. It seems apt that tackling climate change and creating a world that is sustainable should be a grass roots movement, as the Pope acknowledged: “while the existing world order proves powerless to assume its responsibilities, local individuals and groups can make a real difference.” People can do small things that collectively will make a big difference: recycling, encouraging wildlife in gardens, not wasting food or energy, finding greener ways to travel – it’s a happy coincidence that being greener often saves money.

The Pope has done well to highlight our precarious environment by putting it on the agenda with such a powerful message. People who fight for the natural world are not tree hugging lefties, or herbal-tea-drinking-vegan-hipsters. They're just concerned. Concerned about the kind of world that we will be handing down to our children. The environment and its wildlife don't have voices of their own, they cannot defend themselves against human consumption and destruction. It is up to us, as the dominant life form on this planet, to take responsibility for our home; and when we do we will see the benefits because “Nature never did betray the heart that loved her” (William Wordsworth).