And he burned ‘em (Andy Burnham)
A bit of an unfortunate name really in the current climate, Mr Burnham, verging on nominative determinism (or an inaptronym).
Despite five heatwaves in a row, until a few days ago our new PM was more concerned about vertical drinking in pubs and making it easier for us to cancel subscriptions (so just the important things in society) than even mentioning the words climate change. The result of the recent ‘top level’ cobra meeting (you know, that complete bollocks emergency crisis-management committee) was to, well, politely ask, in a very English way, if we could perhaps, just temporarily, please, if you don’t mind, just for a while, stop using disposable BBQs (of course, it’s all our fault! Not the giant fossil fuel corporations). That’s probably the most you’ll get from our Andy. Another short-term thinking, gutless moron in No.10, yippee. (This combined with his support for extracting more oil and gas from the North Sea, and cut sales targets in electric vehicles* gives me little confidence in him, or the future.)
I actually want our government to force us to drive less, fly less, cycle more, grow our own fruit and veg, recycle water, consume less, protect nature… and dozens of other things mentioned in this very blog from time to time.
*Not that I approve of electric vehicles at all (cars are still cars). No one seems to mention electricity as a dirty word but most of it is still generated by fossil fuels. Aside from that, the mining for minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite used for vehicle batteries is decimating rainforests in Africa and Asia. Technology in general is terrible for the environment: AI, computers, mobiles, data centres, even sending an email; they all require precious metals from the earth and use masses of energy and water.
Governments sort of like to blame us (disposable BBQs); we like to blame corporations (Shell, BP) but this blame occurs because it’s all of our faults yet we can’t quite seem to admit that buying that bigger car, that new phone, that larger TV, that new dress in an online sale, posting a new Instagram post, flying to Spain on holiday, and just about everything we do on a daily basis all contributes to climate change. We demand the energy from the big polluters to make and keep running, updating, upgrading our homes, our gadgets, our vehicles, our pernicious lifestyles.
Previously on Barnflakes
• A ten year plan to save the planet
• Every day we wake up and choose ugliness over beauty
• The Custodians
• Five years ago Boris was a climate change denier, a year ago he didn’t understand it; in a month he’s hosting a summit on it. Be afraid.
• Turning car parks into parks
• G7: all sett to destroy Carbis Bay
• The cult of personality vs. saving the planet
• Climate change crime scene
• Nature despair
• Instagram hasn’t heard of climate change
• Letters of complaint
• Notes on Extinciton Rebellion
• The world’s top ten biggest environmental problems (and how to solve them)
• Notes on dog poop bags
• Don’t blame us
• The things I do and the things I don’t
• Aspire to be average
• Busy bein’ busy
• Blight of the plastic bag
• Water as it Oughta