Now, here’s a funny thing.  A few days ago, while  taking a break from collecting litter, I was standing in a queue outside a coffee shop.

A woman, a complete stranger, accosted me. I wear my heart on my sleeve and sometimes on my T-shirt. She appeared to take her cue from my Extinction Rebellion T-shirt.

“Are  you one of these idiots blocking the motorways?”

I confirmed that I am, adding, “We are drawing attention to the danger that climate change could bring  an end to civilisation.”

“I know all about that,” said she, “It’s your methods that are wrong; you should all be locked up.

“The police are doing their best in that direction,” said I.

“You just don’t care about other people, said she as she walked away.

She had clearly spoken her mind and had no wish to hear more from me.

Now, here’s another funny thing.

 

On 11th November, at 11.00 am, again taking a break from collecting litter, I was standing at the local War Memorial with some 20 or 30 others. I was holding a placard reading as follows:

1914-18

1939-45

They did not give their today, so that we can use our tomorrow destroying the planet.

As we all dispersed after the 2-minute silence, A man (in his 20s, I would guess) shouted at me:

“You are a disgrace.” In response to my quizzical look, he added: “You show no respect.”

He stormed off in no mood to hear anything from me.

Greta Thunberg is right. From the hundreds of men in suits, ferried here at great expense in terms Of cash and polluting emissions, we heard little but blah, blah, blah.

It should not be a matter of “phasing out.” The CO2 content of the atmosphere is not phasing up; it is increasing in leaps and bounds and so the climate is set to exceed the 1.5 degrees maximum  increase set by the Paris COP.

Fossil fuel extraction and deforestation should not be phased out, it should all stop NOW. Even that will be too late.

Bolsonaro, the bandit president of Brazil, says he will stop destruction of the Amazon by 2030.

I can imagine his phone call to his fellow Brazilian bandits: “Well guys, fire up your chainsaws and flame-throwers; we have just 9 years to finish the job.”

The UN should already have arraigned him before a special international court, charged with endangering the future of civilisation.

His mealy-mouthed undertaking to put a limit on deforestation of the lungs of the world should be monitored by a UN military detachment, because he  cannot be trusted.

The Indian PM has undertaken to phase out coal by 2070. This comes from a man who puts satellites for big business before lavatories for the people and whose country is already being ravaged by the consequences of climate change.

Indian use of coal should stop NOW and in order to help facilitate that, THE UK should immediately give India £100 million. This would represent a tiny pay-back  of the Indian resources stolen by Britain during 200 years of colonial rule and a little towards the money promised by the global north to the global south at the 2015 Paris COP.

The British presidency of COP26 set an appalling example.  We have the most polluted rivers and littoral waters in Europe, with a government that opposed insisting that water utilities should  not tip raw sewage into our rivers and coastal waters. The government has not put a stop to the plan for  a new coalmine in Cumbria and new oil and gas extraction in the Cambo field off Shetland.

The plan to finance home insulation has been dropped. The plan to plant a national forest has been dropped. “Oh,” would say Doris, “These are still live commitments.”

“Bullshit,” say I, “Commitments butter no parsnips.”

My problem is this: if I voice too loudly my concern that COP26 has been a waste of time, some would take the view that, if all is lost in any case, why bother sacrificing one’s pleasures.  They will continue driving their dirty cars, taking cheap flights and eating red meat and sod the future of the grandchildren. By the time the grandkids are living in a hell-on-earth,  with civilisation falling to bits, their grandparents will be dead.

That’s me for now.

Being the village idiot, I’ll just go on collecting the rubbish dropped by worse idiots.

Colin Yardley

darwinc@ntlworld.com