– I don’t know if I agree fully with the point of view expressed here but I think there has to be some truth in it.  It does seem true that if another book or speech, clearly explaining the predicament that we’re in, would cause us to wake up and take action – well, we’d have done it by now.  The current approaches do not seem to be working.
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The west won’t be mobilised on climate change by utopian demands that we give up our standard of living, argues Will Hutton. A visionary plan that can be backed by the public is critical.
The green movement as it stands should receive the last rites. Its only hope is for a complete overhaul. Its mystic, utopian view of nature and its attachment to meaningless notions such as sustainable development or the precautionary principle should be done away with. It is time to move on.
Or so says professor Anthony Giddens in his new book, The Politics of Climate Change. It is not that Giddens disputes that mankind is dangerously warming up the planet. The scientific evidence is overwhelming; the risk of a global calamity all too real.
It is just that he has the chutzpah to acknowledge what is obvious. Despite the threat, and the mounting evidence, there is no hope of mobilising western governments and the public into action by appeals to green utopianism or impossible demands to give up our current standard of living. There needs to be a new language, a focus on climate change alone, because that is what counts and is a practical route forward that makes sense to the mass of people. Otherwise, we really are lost.
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