‘Green’ attitudes need to change

Now that Donald Trump – one of the world’s foremost climate change deniers – will soon be US president, there is pessimism that the campaign to save our planet may be set back years.

As the COP29 talks opened in Azerbaijan this week, top meteorological experts predicted that the past 10 years will be the warmest decade on record.

And, while the deniers claim that warming hasn’t killed the polar bears, scientists – and many of them – say the increasing temperature is playing havoc with global weather patterns.

The recent catastrophic floods in Spain and powerful hurricanes in the Caribbean are proof of this. And, closer to home, we have seen increasingly more extreme weather events – which have cost the economy multiple billions.

These have ranged from floods to unseasonal heavy snowfalls, as well as drought in some areas.

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At the same time, though, it is undeniable that the climate change gospel is emanating from the developed countries of the north, who want to force developing countries to move away from fossil fuels… the very energy sources which drive their economies and help them offer their people a route out of poverty.

The debate at COP29 will be about the industrialised nations giving aid to poorer ones to wean them off reliance on fossil fuels.

Yet, as a social justice campaigner warns on our pages today, the focus on these new “green” energy sources – and she singles out “green hydrogen” as an example – may see poorer communities, who already find themselves marginalised and ignored by massive, profitable mining operations, be further prejudiced.

The whole debate is, therefore, a perplexing conundrum.

It is easy to be tempted into the “live for today” philosophy… but what will we then leave behind for the future generations who must live on the only planet we can call home?

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