This is a picture of peaceful plenty in a favoured land. In the long journey of humankind there has never been such a period of material prosperity. Look around the sky, there is not a cloud to be seen.
And yet, and yet. Simultaneously, and on the same day, I finish reading Tim Flannery’s latest book, ‘Here on Earth’. Once again this scientist, humanist, gentle man has managed to put in simple terms the many many facts and opinions that play upon the situation of this planet and its dominant inhabitants.
In his final sentence Tim says this -
“But I am certain of one thing - if we do not strive to love one another, and to love our planet as much as we love ourselves, then no further progress is possible here on Earth”.
Tim sees more than a cloud in the sky, he sees a potential thunderstorm.
He is, of course, but one of the army of scientists who have been issuing warnings about global warming for the past thirty years. For the same period the posturing politicians have been shameless in the ways in which they have ducked and dodged to avoid the biggest issue that faces the planet. There has been no Churchill rallying the people to action despite sacrifices that will be involved. Instead we are told by conservatives that nothing must be done that might put up the price of electricity.
There may be a Churchill in the future, and there will need to be more than one. But, as with Churchill in 1940, a crisis will actually have to occur before the wilfully ignorant people of this Earth wake up to the many warnings they have been given. “Why weren’t we told” they will bellow.
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