Environmental (or come to think of it, any) “campaigners” are often tarred with being “unrealistic” or “radical” in their ideas. When people say “unrealistic”, they often mean “I don’t want to xxxx – I don’t want the hassle of doing xxx.”. People trying to discredit the ideas from campaigners as “radical” are even more interesting. Consider the alternative and think about who is being radical now:
– It is deeply radical to say “we have 5 billion people on the planet and things are already running out. I know let’s try having 10 billion people on the planet and see what happens?”.
– It is extremely radical to say “let’s keep driving until we change the chemistry of our atmosphere and then see what happens”.
– It is tragically radical to comtemplate that “when you were born you shared the planet with perhaps 30 million other species and yet when you die there might be one tenth of the number”.
I am just reading “The Comforting Whirlwind” by Bill McKibben (apologies for the precis above) and I was so reminded of Bob Geldof’s words on the power of unreasonable people. I discussed the balancing act between the two Government Stern and Eddington reports in my previous postings – something has to give and if that means us getting tarred as being unrealistic, radical and unreasonable then I don’t think I mind that much!
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