Wishy Washy

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Abstract

ve missteps in international aid, vaccine patent protections and poverty or inequalities. At the heart of all these concerns are conflicts between domestic politics — the source of support for these leaders — and foreign policies that gain little media attention during times when people feel threatened.If a global climate plan is ever going to be possible then surely the global pandemic might just have been the chastening experience to enlighten and inform the debates. But, around the world the electoral cycles for these leaders are rarely in sync, and all of the participants are hopelessly bogged down in prevailing economic belief systems that can price anything but value very little. That’s why they’ll be caught between the wishy and the washy. The latter will sound good — the former constrained by their ideologically unreconstructed supporters.In truth there is no shortage of good ideas — but will they be spoken? The lobby pleas — ‘Make me virtuous, O Leader, but not yet’ — will once again distort the evidence and the chances of real progress (not to mention survival of humanity) will be lost.Copernicus (1473–1543) had much

Options

the same problem — the conflict between observable evidence and prevailing belief systems. His life’s work — his ‘heavenly observations’ — were only published when he was near death and subsequent students were vilified for their non-conformance to crap credos. Today’s equivalent of Flat Earthlings, sitting at the centre of a universe of their own limited imaginations, are those who still hanker after everlasting GDP growth stats — a league table of global regression and Planet Abuse.Some G7 leaders know this — but many, apparently, have not a clue. And those that do will, for all manner of reasons, choose wishy/washy options. Meanwhile, as sea levels rise, coasts erode and our toxic junk seeps into the waters, the good people of Cornwall will doubtless wonder at the aliens that have arrived in their midst. Like their brethren along all of the edges of our islands they must equip themselves to fix the folly of leaders lacking vision. Greenwish, Greenwash and Planet Abuse will, sadly, not be fixed by a Whitehall, a Carbis Bay or a Glasgow dedicated to post-pandemic economic recovery more than the wellbeing of our planet and life of all kinds.</article></body>

Wishy Washy

In the colour wheel of politics, a vibrant Green is way beyond the conservative Blue

Our climate choices (source: ingimage.com)

Greenwash and Greenwish are set to feature prominently in the next few weeks. Desperate to earn negotiating kudos at this week’s G7 encounters at Corbis Bay in Cornwall, leaders will promise the planet, and big businesses are already planning bucketloads of Greenwash for Glasgow’s COP26 climate summit in the Autumn.

The G7 leaders and invited guests may decline handshakes and be wary of being seen unmasked — and some may only have a virtual presence on account of urgent needs to stay at home. They’ll have a crowded agenda, and it will not all be about the climate crisis — although such are the undeniable interconnections it will be difficult to separate the umpteen contentious issues up for debate.

Biden’s plan for corporate taxation is positively as important to global wellbeing as the UK’s negative missteps in international aid, vaccine patent protections and poverty or inequalities. At the heart of all these concerns are conflicts between domestic politics — the source of support for these leaders — and foreign policies that gain little media attention during times when people feel threatened.

If a global climate plan is ever going to be possible then surely the global pandemic might just have been the chastening experience to enlighten and inform the debates. But, around the world the electoral cycles for these leaders are rarely in sync, and all of the participants are hopelessly bogged down in prevailing economic belief systems that can price anything but value very little. That’s why they’ll be caught between the wishy and the washy. The latter will sound good — the former constrained by their ideologically unreconstructed supporters.

In truth there is no shortage of good ideas — but will they be spoken? The lobby pleas — ‘Make me virtuous, O Leader, but not yet’ — will once again distort the evidence and the chances of real progress (not to mention survival of humanity) will be lost.

Copernicus (1473–1543) had much the same problem — the conflict between observable evidence and prevailing belief systems. His life’s work — his ‘heavenly observations’ — were only published when he was near death and subsequent students were vilified for their non-conformance to crap credos. Today’s equivalent of Flat Earthlings, sitting at the centre of a universe of their own limited imaginations, are those who still hanker after everlasting GDP growth stats — a league table of global regression and Planet Abuse.

Some G7 leaders know this — but many, apparently, have not a clue. And those that do will, for all manner of reasons, choose wishy/washy options. Meanwhile, as sea levels rise, coasts erode and our toxic junk seeps into the waters, the good people of Cornwall will doubtless wonder at the aliens that have arrived in their midst. Like their brethren along all of the edges of our islands they must equip themselves to fix the folly of leaders lacking vision. Greenwish, Greenwash and Planet Abuse will, sadly, not be fixed by a Whitehall, a Carbis Bay or a Glasgow dedicated to post-pandemic economic recovery more than the wellbeing of our planet and life of all kinds.