the brilliantly leaping gazelle

The most unfathomably inexplicable thing about this election is that both the main parties are fighting this election thinking that what worked for them in the past –making promises to increase spending to do this and that, whilst simultaneously being able to cut taxes to boost the economy and rubbishing the other lots plans to do the same – are no longer sustainable.

I mean, the collapse of our fragile eco-system has already started to happen, as I see it. Others do not. The people still having children for one, and much more important, the leaders of the United States, China, India, Brazil, Indonesia could all implement immediate and effective policies to mitigate the worst effects of a climate collapse. Indeed, had they done so thirty or even twenty years ago, we might as a species been able to avoid extinction. But we’re human and as such, we don’t have the capacity think long term, which has allowed vested interest groups and major polluting countries to claimed that more research was needed.

On what exactly? There have countless reports advocating doing things to mitigate the worst effects of catastrophic climate change, plenty of conferences where politicians all agree something must be done – but by someone else first -but nothing demonstrably effective.

I know it’s not scientifically valid, but when I was a child we never got mosquitoes in London, the tree’s had always shed their leaves by Guy Fawkes Night, only an insane person would wear shorts outside after October unless they were doing something sporty and even then – track-suit bottoms? There was a re-assuring rhythm to the seasons to mark the passing year by, whereas now we – well other parts of the world mainly – have extreme weather events, once in a lifetime disasters that are now happening with increasing frequency. I don’t have to provide any links to these, or to grim predictions, or to some report, because if your reading this blog, then you’ll grasp both the irrefutability of the evidence proving man made climate collapse and the desirability of the inevitable extinction of human life on this planet.

If one of the party leaders was brave and honest enough to say to the electorate ‘Look, I could lie to you and tell you we can halt this, that actions by individuals can make a difference, but only if those individuals had been the leaders of major polluting countries and they’d acted long ago. But they didn’t and no matter how much you re-cycle, install solar panels to heat your home or eat less meat, the sad truth is that in China and America they’re not. Basically we’re fucked, and not in a tender, loving way either.’

Yes, I’m angry, but nowhere near as angry as I would be if I were a young person, facing an increasing uncertain future because of the inability of political leaders to confront and deal with the elephant in the room. Although the way things are going, soon there won’t be any elephants at all.