British holidaymakers who had been to the Greek island of Rhodes came back to the UK last week full of tales of woe about their disturbed holidays. Almost 20% of the island had been ablaze and the “news” was that British people on their hols had to find alternative accommodation or get an early flight home. The news was not much about the destruction of the homes and businesses of the Rhodes islanders. Nor was it about the extensive damage to the flora and fauna that is a fundamental part of the environmental balance on the island. No, seemingly the most important news was that Freddie and Flossie Holidaymaker couldn’t contact their holiday company representative.
That got me hot under the collar. And, if you read my newsletter last week, you will have already guessed that the continued coverage of a millionaire’s ability to have a bank account with an elite firm was also getting me annoyed…! While the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said that the damage to our environment was so bad the world was “boiling”, many news outlets continued to bleat on and on about Nigel Farage.
Meanwhile, British politicians on both sides of the political divide have been backtracking on their environmental promises. They suggest that because money is tight, we can’t do as much as we wanted on climate change. And then yesterday, Sir Tony Blair implied we shouldn’t really bother very much as the actual issue is China. That also got me hot under the collar.
True, China is a problem for carbon dioxide emissions. The Global Energy Monitor reports that the country is dramatically increasing its coal fired power production, while much of the rest of the world is doing the reverse. But why is China having to increase its power production so dramatically? It needs huge amounts of power to create batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). China produces 90% of the batteries used in the world’s EVs. As countries increase their demand for such cars to help the environment, it forces China to harm the environment. It is this kind of lack of joined-up thinking from world “leaders” that get’s me hot under the collar.
Over in the social media world, the people getting hot under the collar there appear to be the ones suggesting that climate change isn’t happening. They believe that “global warming” is some kind of political conspiracy to introduce higher taxation. Any time on social media that someone with actual, real, hard, solid, reliable, scientific evidence says something about climate change, along comes someone who says they also have the evidence that the reverse is true. Of course, their “evidence” is what some bloke said down the pub said as he swigged on his tenth pint of the night. These climate conspiracy theorists also get me hot under the collar.
Some of my readers will know that I love going on cruises. So they will ask how can I go on such environmentally damaging holidays and get annoyed about issues on climate change. Well, what gets me hot under the collar about the people talking about the damage of cruises, is that much of their “evidence” comes from the last century. One leading environmental website talks about the excesses of cruise ships, basing its evidence on what happened in 1999 and fines that were issued in 2003. True, some parts of the industry are poor, but cruise companies have had a significant shift in what they are doing enviornmentally over the past 25 years. The thing that annoys me and gets me hot under the collar is that the people who criticise people going on cruises are happy to take several flights a year.
The issue I am driving at is that we are often focusing on the wrong things. The world is getting hotter; fact. Global leaders are focusing on votes rather than action. Businesses are doing their bit, but only the minimum required by those non-focused politicians. You, I am sure, are doing your bit too to help.
But here’s the problem. If we don’t act soon, we will find it harder to act. Not because the world will just burn up. Rather, it is because we will be unable to think of the solutions. As humans get hotter, their brains work much less efficiently. You know yourself that when you have been on holiday and it has got too hot, you end up with “brain fog”. But try imagining what it would be like working permanently with such beffudled thinking.
Heat also increases negative emotions. That leads to higher levels of conflict, reduced teamworking and greater amounts of anger in the workplace. They, in turn, cause lowered productivity and poorer creativity – both of which are needed in large amounts if we are to get ourselves out of the climate crisis.
What the climate emergency really means is that we are all going to get hot under the collar much more often about very small things. Is your workplace ready for that? Or are you going to take preventitive action and get in some room coolers, increase your air conditioning, and buy loads more fans to cool people down. Nice idea, except it means that to produce those items China will need to build more coal fired power stations, thereby making the problem worse.
