Viewed from a distance, the COP 26 Climate Event could be summarised succinctly as, on the one hand powerful people trying to do what is within the realms of what they think of as possible to avert climate catastrophe, and on the other hand climate crisis activists shouting at them telling them that they are bad, greedy, uncaring and that they are not doing nearly enough.
I understand the campaigners' anger and frustration (and believe) that not enough is being done and possibly won't be done to avert much pain and loss of life and homes for many who live at the edges - those who live at the mercy of sea levels rising, and those who live in those zones where climate change has the most profound and disturbing effects on weather and land. So the message that it is bad not to care and not to do more is important for moral and spritual reasons.
But there is another message that we need to start emphasising.
At the moment it can often seem as though we are facing a binary choice. Act or face devastation. The truth is there will not be enough action fast enough to stop some warming beyond the limits which scientists say must be met. So there has to be a message that helps us all to become more resilient.
A time is coming when travel will have to be different. A time is coming when we may have less exotic food choices. A time is coming when our access to the internet and lighting fast communication may be limited. But here's the thing. We have lived happily and without these things in the past. It may be that we can discover that less really is more. More children playing outdoors for longer. Football and rounders could reappear as childhood games played in makeshift spaces along with hide and seek and other chase and catch games. Travelling long distances might have to happen by sailing ship and rail once again. But remember the elegance and speed of the last generations of sailing ships? The tea clippers that raced around the horn? With new technologies and lighter materials, it may yet be that a new era of sustainable travel can be born. With less screen time for gaming it may be that our youngsters will once again be found in parks and gardens playing old fashioned real games. Instead of fresh bananas we may well eat banana chips which have been created where the bananas were harvested, and can travel long distances and keep over long periods of time. And perhaps, as we face a more sustainable future with confidence, we may well begin to enjoy living in ways which settle and stall the warming process without the associated drama of "it's a crisis" dogging our attempts and clouding our actions. If we can get our heads round it and get the message out, enough, if not all, may yet be well.
