By Anne MacLennan
As the impacts of climate change become increasingly apparent, global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. Carbon dioxide equivalents reached an all-time high last year, 50% higher than pre-industrial levels and breaking the 1.5°C barrier, with coal, gas and oil emissions still increasing.
This summer is almost certainly the UK’s hottest on record and after the dry spring, it’s another bad year for domestic food production while major overseas suppliers such as Spain are also struggling with climate disasters.
Climate change is claimed to be the biggest global health threat of the 21st century and the greatest injustice in history, international and intergenerational. According to the renowned climate scientist and activist, James Hansen, the 1.5°C goal has long been deader than a doornail despite reassurances to the contrary.
Scotland and the rest of the UK may be reducing ‘in-house’ emissions, but are guilty of contributing to the global total through embedded emissions and enthusiastic use of international aviation. Embedded emissions include those associated with all the goods and services that we import, from food to clothing to electronics or cars, making up about half of Scotland’s carbon footprint. They are attributed to the exporting country, the producer rather than the consumer, so we get away with more consumption. International flights have not been included in the national emissions totals so far, but since 1990, Scots have increased international travel emissions by a third, so maybe we’re not as green as we’d like to think we are.
So why, in the face of an obvious (to this readership) problem, with known solutions, does society behave in this apparently counterintuitive, weird, manner?
Thinkers from London and Edinburgh blame western industrial capitalism for climate breakdown along with its threats to biodiversity and future generations. Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic (supposedly) WEIRD societies are aided and abetted by the IMF, World Bank and WTO to push up fossil CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions thereby accelerating the breakdown.
Neoliberal policies and WEIRD perspectives together fit into the WEIRDo policy framework: Wasteful, Extractive, Imperialistic, Reductionist and Domination-oriented. Free markets come before people and planet. Characteristics of this collective mindset include the ‘edification of ignorance’, spreading misinformation, commodification of nature, ‘technofixes’, and a lack of imagination. The rise in green backlash and right wing populism should not be surprising in this context. Citizens and politicians are resisting the urgently needed transitions, especially where there are real or perceived negative consequences, and that plays nicely into the hands of the (often climate-sceptical) populist right.
In contrast, a WISER framework to meaningfully address climate, nature and social crises, will prioritise Wellbeing, Inclusivity, Sufficiency, Empowerment and Resilience. The ability to imagine different ways of being and doing will also be important for an equitable, sustainable and thriving future for all.