So I was listening to a chap singing at the Fitzwilliam Museum here in Cambridge. The setting is amazing. The walls are adorned by fine paintings of great people, in ornate golden frames. The room was filled with people who were enjoying this demonstration of what happens when society has the resources to allow some of it's members to reach the peak of their abilities.
Yet all I could think about was where this was all going to be in 10 or 20 years time. The science about climate change is now lagging behind the speed of the change itself. Reading Mark Lynas' Six Degrees introduces you to the sheer terror of a world blighted by 4, 5 or 6 degrees of warming. We will not be worried about how to tune our pianos or where we can get a tube of red ocher, we will be worried about where our next meal comes from as we fight for resources on a massively over-crowded planet with a collapsed eco-system.
Last year I read a book, recommended by Monbiot, called 'The Road'. It's the most wrenching, tragic yet compelling book I have ever read. Testament to this is the rather frank text I got from Francis when he read it at my suggestion. A post-apocalyptic world where people have to do anything to survive.
Is this really the gift we want to give our children?
I do everything I can do reduce my personal emissions but I have recently joined the whirlwind that is Francis Irving to help create: http://seriouschange.org.uk in order to help effect political change. Join us. Write to your MP/representative to let them know you care (http://writetothem.com).
If we don't sort this out, as Starbuck herself would say, "It's the end of the world".
