the brilliantly leaping gazelle

One of the many things the election has clarified is the relative importance of one issue against another to the electorate. So,  despite being told many times that this election was about climate change, that the time to act was now, that doing nothing meant an accelerated worsening of extreme weather events, despite all of that and more, enough of the electorate prioritized short-term gain at a cost of long term pain.

I actually don’t care if the human race becomes extinct, I mean we’ve let other species become extinct, so why should I? Has our existence really been a good thing for the planet?

Our hypocrisy concerning the importance we give to helping to save the planet is best summed up by Christmas.

Not by the amount and what kind of food we consume, how it’s produced or how it reaches us. Although that’s bad enough. Nor is it the elaborate light displays which illuminate the outsides of houses. At least they’re not as bad as the ones in public spaces. Neither is it the rampant consumerism, all wrapped in wrapping paper which, if it has glitter on it, can’t be re-cycled. Whilst that might possibly be a strong contender, it has far too many different aspects to it, such as it’s this and that – c’mon, you know what the this’s and that’s are – to be a simple and instantly understandable illustration of our hypocrisy.

Christmas tree’s. Whilst we know how important tree’s are to absorbing CO2, so much so that the amount of tree’s each party pledged to plant if elected became a thing, regardless of that we still cut down tree’s as long as they look pretty when we dress them.

We know all this, but we do it anyway. We’re not so much sleep-walking into disaster as running towards it.