Will the real disaster please stand up
We all know climate change is a disaster.
We will all remember recently the disasters in the Philippines due to flooding or those in Samoa because of Tsunami and earthquake.
The general response to such disasters is to send in a disaster response team – to rescue the living and wounded, recover the dead where possible, and to try and restore some kind of order in the face of the tragedy which affects us.
It’s a very human response to a very human problem. Disasters happen all the time, some made by our own hands (the Twin Towers as it is now euphemistically referred to), others by nature, as in the examples above.
Sometimes the real disaster is that we do nothing.
Disasters usually happen in real time. Like the TV show 24, only without the edits. And this prompts real time response. Climate change, however, is different. It is a disaster that appears to be occurring in slow motion. It seems intangible; ungraspable, unseeable. And I suspect we tend to take some store by this. But this is deceptive.
If you can’t see it and can’t touch it, it’s simply doesn’t get the traction that real-time events get. Yet climate change is more like a runaway train than a slow motion replay of the all-whites triumphant goal. It may seem a bit on the slow side now, but once it’s got momentum it’s going to be harder and harder to put the breaks on. We’re lulled into a false security because it all seems so intangibly slow – that’s human instinct. Distant deadlines make us feel we have all the time in the world.
Of course, what you need to know at this point is I am a climate change sceptic. I believe human made climate change is a fact – sure. What I’m skeptical about is that we will do a great deal to stop it. We can do a great deal, but I’m skeptical that we will.
This is why we need leadership and engagement that is more intuitive, more imaginative, more willing to take risks. because the biggest and perilous risk of all is that we do nothing, or next to nothing – which is what seems to be happening now with our political leaders.
What’s the biggest disaster we are facing? It’s not the economy, and it’s not climate change. Nor is it the interaction of the former with the latter. Perhaps the biggest disaster facing us is our political leadership. There’s a runaway train coming: we can deny it, we can have meetings about it, we can think about disaster planning for the destruction it will cause on the way – but what we really need is for someone to have the intuitive balls enough to get into the drivers seat before it’s too late (and to accept that it may already be too late – and theirs is a sacrifice). Perhaps Hone Harawira is right. Perhaps they all need shooting – but why should they have such an easy out and leave the rest of us to suffer?
Of course I realise we need big picture political decisions. And I also realise the real solution, whether it originates from legislation of community development, will be the changed lifestyles of communities.
The voices of these communities need to continue to grow and rise up and be heard.
Look, when it comes down to it quite simply we are wasting time we do not have. We can ‘raise awareness’ and ring the bells but it isn’t going to make the kind of difference that’s needed. Like the offerings of our politicians it’s too little, too late. It’s bullshit really. We are simply playing the same game they are – and we are not prepared to face the reality.
And the reality is we need a revolution. Peaceful, if possible, but a revolution nevertheless.
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