"There is no Planet B": the anthropocene and today's youth

"The Anthropocene (Noun):

            a proposed term for the present geological epoch (from the time of the Industrial Revolution onwards), during which humanity has begun to have a significant impact on the environment."

                                                                            Source: Collins English Dictionary (online edition)

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Yes, the term was a new one on me as well - at least, until I read There is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years (Updated Edition) by British researcher and author Mike Berners-Lee recently.  I confess to buying it by mistake - I confused him with his brother Sir Tim, widely acclaimed as the Father of the Internet - but having read the thing I'm very glad I did.

Berners-Lee describes himself in the book as "a generalist", which is to say someone whose career has followed many different, mainly scientific, paths with unexpected turns (in one paragraph he lists many of them - and an interesting list it is, too), and not in any way an expert on climate change, global warming or any of the other terminology used for what is happening today.  But in recent years, his consultancy work with many leading international companies in a variey of disciplines has convinced him of the very real and imminent danger we all face, and inspired him to spend increasing amounts of time researching and learning all he can about it.  The book, together with two fore-runners that look at different aspects of the anthropcene, attempts to condense all of that acquired knowledge into a simple and entertaining narrative that anyone of average intelligence can understand, explaining in detail what is going wrong, providing details of potential solutions and suggesting ways in which we can all, in small ways, take action to contribute to that solution.

It's a cracking read.  The writing is light and simple, even when addressing the most complex topics, with unexpected bits of humour to leaven the dark prognoses.  There is a huge amount of information included, much of it grim and all illustrated by a selection of graphs and charts, but with a lot that is hopeful and encouraging, as well as detailed appendices and a glossary that dig deeper into the detail of most topics and terminology.  I am not going to attempt to summarise it.  Simply, this book should be mandatory reading for anyone with an interest in the future of this world, especially educators and politicians (with an emphasis on those in senior government office, no matter the country, who have a genuine duty to understand).  If they don't understand what we are going through, and what it is likely to lead to, they are simply not fit for public office (any Tory members reading this take note: neither of your candidates have any interest in the subject).  But some bits did jump out at me and stick.

For instance, there is absolutely no good reason why there are so many millions of people across Africa, south Asia, central and south America and even Europe and the other developed countries going short of food and starving, when the total food production globally is more than two and half times in excess of what is needed (in calories per day) to feed more than the current global population (currently 8billion and rising).  But most of the excess is used to make fertiliser, feed farm animals or make bio-fuels of at best questionable value.  Or simply thrown away in the trash.  The food production is also hopelessly unbalanced, with for instance the US able to produce many times its actual needs while countries like Ethiopia and Bangladesh much less than their most basic needs (and lacking the fertile land to do much about it).

For instance, even if the Paris target of 1.5C average temperature rise is achieved (and this in itself is highly unlikely) it will not alone solve the climate emergency but merely delay its final act - essentially the global extinction of virtually all life, including ours - by a couple of hundred years.  Weaning ourselves off fossil fuels by 2050 is only a start - and all the time countries like the US, Russia, India, China and even the UK conspicuously fail to be serious about meeting their agreed targets that too is highly unlikely.  Nor will it improve until not a single drop of oil or lump of coal is extracted from the ground and we perfect ways of extracting the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, to lessen their effect and give temperatures a chance to drop back, permanently.

For instance - and in my view this is THE most important point of them all - the battle (for it is a battle) cannot be fought in isolation: every country in the world MUST co-operate and join together if we are to stand a chance.  This means a complete overhaul of the way we live, the way we think, and the way we treat each other (and every other living thing).  Forget all the competing ideologies: Left v Right, Republican v Democrat, Christianity v Islam, black v white - all of that is just shit, of no importance or consquence when measured against the survival of our species: except insofar as their continuation will effectively guarantee our demise.  We need a total global societal change like no other in human history - and optimist though I am, I have a problem envisioning how the hell we are going to achieve it.

But I have not a shred of doubt we have to try!

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Most of the bad stuff has happened in the last 120 years or so, since the start of the 20th century.  And yes, I know the Industrial Revolution dates back to the 18th - but since the invention of the internal combustion engine, the development of cities more or less as we recognise them now, mass transportation and a decline in agricultural societies the pace of it has accelerated dramatically.  Put simply, the more power we generate, in whatever fashion (wood burners, coal fires, petrol engines, atomic, wind and solar.....it makes no difference), the more we demand (as opposed to need).  The more stuff we have - radios, tv's, cars, mobile phones, houses - whatever: even food and clothing - the more we want.  The more money we have, the more we want to (and do) spend, and the more debt we create. It's human nature, I suppose, but with the huge inequalities in the world - most of which are fairly recent developments - causing so much anger and resentment, we somehow have to change.  Boris Johnson calls it Levelling Up and even created a Cabinet Ministry to achieve it during his ill-fated Premiership, as well as a Clinate Czar - but both have achieved virtually nothing during this Parliament  If one relatively small country fails at this challenge, then what hope is there for a global change?

It seems to me a generational problem.  By that I mean that older people are more set in their ways and hence more resistant to change, whereas younger generations will happily embrace the most daunting challenges and major changes.  Look at any news footage of street demonstrations to call for climate change action, and you will see the vast majority of participants are in their 20s or younger: Greta Thunberg, 16 when she hit international headlines, being a perfect example, and she is not alone.  Sure, there are older people there, including people of my age - nearly 70 - and older, but we are very much in the minority.  

The Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement has been in the headlines several times with their peaceful protests, in particular those that involved sitting down on the M11 motorway amd closing it (by police action on safety grounds: quite rightly).  I saw very few people, certainly in the news reports I read, that were supportive of their actions, but it was noticable that the most swingeing criticism - the calls to just drive over them, or drag 'em off and lock 'em up for life - came from we older people.  I may be generalizing here, but I know that I can be impatient and intolerant about some things that younger people do (notably time spent gaming rather than playing sports or doing something more active - because that's what I always did) but I do try to understand why this is so and (sometimes grudgingly) respect the young's right to do their own thing - as I used to. But I have never doubted or criticised the XR activists for their actions, and fully accept and defend their democratic right to do so.  It's ntoable as well that the British press generally portrays XR as a local student and unemployed mob of anarchists out to cause trouble, when it is nothing of the sort.  It's a global organisation, active in 84 countries, with over 1100 affiliated groups, with a very clear and distincg ethos that goes far beyond supergluing yourself to the tarmac in the fast lane of the M11.  I seriously urge you check out their website at  Extinction Rebellion | Join The Fight Against Climate and Ecological Collapse for more information: with no imperative to agree with them or join in

Peaceful protest is historically a prime mover for peaceful change.  The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) recognized this 50 odd years ago, with marches at Aldermaston and elsewhere in their campaign to remove nuclear weapons from the UK.  Eventually, they won a partial victory in that since then there have been many international treaties signed that have vastly reduced the number of nuclear weapons in existance and arguably made the world a safer place, but some still exist on British soil. Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela led similar movements in India and South Africa respectively that used by and large peaceful protest to gain their independence (in India from British rule, in South Africa from apartheid).  Earlier still, the Suffragettes won the right to electoral votes for women in Britain and elsewhere.  These were all major societal changes that came about as the message eventually reached a majority of people and won their mass acceptance.  And they were all movements that in their earliest days were roundly denounced as madness, their leaders victimised and imprisoned and demonised as terrorists.  I suspect in time the same will prove true for Extinction Rebellion.

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There can be little argument that the last few generations have made a right royal fuck up of running this world and its society.  I would argue my own and the one before - popularly called The Best Generation, in honour of their wartime exploits: rightly so - have done more to create the mess we are living through, usually for what they genuinely thought were the best of reasons, and it would be wrong to be too harsh in criticism.  The benefit of hindsight is a wonderful thing but not available when you're decision making, and the scientific knowledge and technology we now possess wasn't available then to guide.  

But such has been the "progress" and so universal its adoption that we have managed, in little more than a century, to reach a stage where our formerly pristine and naturally wealthy planet is now in a dreadful state.  Air pollution chokes the inhabitants of cities and countryside alike.  Rivers and lakes and oceans are choked with the detritus of human society made from materials, notably plastic, that will take thousands of years to fully decay, and that, broken down into microscopic particles is already entering the human foodchain (with still uncertain consequences) as it is ingested by the animals and fish we eat.  The stuff has even been found in creatures that typically live in the deepest parts of the ocean, and Coke bottles spotted on the floor of the Marianas Trench, the deepest point anywhere on Earth.  And no-one knows for certain how long the stuff will be with us, nor even the vaguest idea about how to manage it.

And yet.......and yet there is hope.  It lies, not with my generation, nor that of our children, but more likely with our children's children.  Whatever happens, they and their own children and succeeding geenerations are the ones who will face the worst of the climate crisis that we are beginning to experience now.  They are the ones who will have to adapt their lives to a world that will be very different from the one we live in, and find and master the solutions hinted at in Berners-Lee's book, and find even more workable solutions.  If they fail, then we really are coming to the end of all things...

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Earlier this year, my youngest boy hosted a party for a bunch of his school friends, all 17 and 18 years old, all Polish and speaking almost fluent English as well, so we were able to chat over a beer or three.  They shared the same desires and ideas as I did when I was their age, back in the dim and distant late 60s and early 70s Hippie Era - which is to say as much sex and booze and rock'n'roll as they could lay their hands on.  They just wanted to have Fun (with a capital F) and not worry too much about school and Uni and exams and what the rest of their lives might bring, not that night anyway.  Some of them had visited England on holidays and school trips, and we had a lively discussion about whether Polish sausages were better than English (they aren't),  was fish & chips and cottage pie really the best grub in the world (it isn't but I love 'em both anyway), and why British beer tends to be warmer than Polish beer (and nowhere near as strong).

Of course, we touched on politics.  None of them were fans of the current Polish government; there was complete condemnation for Putin's Special Military Operation; most thought that Brexit had been a disaster for both Britain and an EU that in their view was badly in need of reform; and all were concerned about the continuing after effects of Covid on our health and national economies.  We didn't agree on everything, of course not, but I left thinking that they were all really bright and sensible kids with promising futures, no matter what crap they inherit from my generation and that of their parents (who all seem of an age with my eldest son, give or take a couple of years - which is a sobering thought: I could easily have been their grandad).

They were all much more international in their outlook than I was at a comparable age, and wanted to travel and see the world before settling down (but responsibly). They understood what was happening with the climate crisis better than I (it was before I read Planet B...) and I could easily envision them joining a ER demonstration somewhere, and perhaps going into a career that offers the chance to contribute to building a better society and world.   In my day we were more concerned with nuclear proliferation but hadn't got a clue what to do about it and left it to our "elders and betters" - a concept thankfully absent from today's youth.  And thank goodness for that!

The future, for better or worse, is theirs, and I sincerely hope they will do a better job with it than my lot did with our inheritance.  I have a feeling they will.