Why we may have a hope in hell of surviving the climate change challenge, Jonathon Porritt

Interesting interview with Jonathon Porritt, Author, broadcaster & Founder Director of @Forum4theFuture, order his new book Hope in Hell @HopeInHell2020. See our view of the book here.

What is your personal background?

Born 1950. Happy-go-lucky, privileged childhood and education (including living for two years in New Zealand and Australia – my Dad was a New Zealander), followed by ten years teaching in a West London Comprehensive and getting stuck into green politics.

Has it been a logical progression to where you are now?

‘Logical’ is an interesting word to use here! I only started to reflect on how insanely lucky I was to be part of a loving, comfortably well-off family when I got to my early 20s – and then I was in full-on catch-up mode for a couple of years before ‘choosing my path’. Decisions to become an environmental activist and teacher were made significantly easier by discovering how much I hated the prospect of becoming a lawyer – which is what I’d been preparing (prepared?) for.

My parents thought I was crazy; my friends thought I was completely insane; even I thought I was crazy. But it seemed to make sense – and 50 years on it still does.

Everything I do today is still shaped by what I ‘picked up’ from my parents (in terms of values, integrity, care for other people, hard work, service and so on) and those ten years in teaching and political activism. Lots of people don’t get that mix – I’ve often been described as a ‘green toff’, but for me it couldn’t be simpler. Given such gifts, start giving back as soon as you can.

Hope in hell? The climate change challenge with Jonathon Porritt

How have you been managing during these corona times?

The last 12 months have provided the starkest contrast in my life that I’ve ever experienced. I was on a high through 2019, deeply inspired by XR and by Greta Thunberg and the emergence of a generation of formidable young climate activists. I wrote the lion’s share of Hope in Hell through those months – right up to the onset of the coronavirus crisis. Lockdown put paid to all the momentum built up around the Climate Emergency in 2019 – the CEO of a company I’ve worked with for a long time told me recently that its sustainability agenda had been ‘vapourised’ by COVID-19.

I fear that 2020 will be seen as ‘the lost year’ in terms of climate campaigning – UNLESS governments around the world get their act together by putting that Climate Emergency right at the heart of their economic recovery strategies. Restoring purchasing power and creating jobs will dominate the debate for the rest of this year, and if governments really seized hold of all the ideas floating around as part of the Green New Deal agenda, then 2020 could still turn out to be a real turning point.

Will we see a Green New Deal in the UK?

Am I hopeful that’s going to happen here in the UK? Not really. The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s recent Plan for Jobs was a damp squib. The £2bn promised for improving the energy efficiency of our housing stock is a start, but no more than that. You have to look to Germany (with its €40bn Green Recovery Plan, or France, or the EU’s Next Generation Fund, to understand the scale of what’s really needed. The UK is still nowhere.

Trillions of dollars of public money are going to be dished out over the next year as governments try to reboot their economies. If these dollars are spent wisely, addressing both the Climate Emergency and all today’s environmental crises, then we could find ourselves in a much better place by 2030. If they’re spent propping up yesterday’s wasteful, destructive, carbon-intensive economy, then we’re pretty much screwed.

Do we have any reasons to be hopeful?

COVID-19 has made a lot more people aware of just how vulnerable our societies are – and how dependent we still are on the natural world. So I’m hopeful that more and more of us, post-COVID-19, will be prepared to listen to the scientific evidence about accelerating climate change – however unpalatable that might be – and then demand faster change from our politicians.

And that’s where the technology comes in, because all the solutions we need are already out and about, just needing to be massively scaled up all over the world. The renewables revolution is already upon us – although it’s astonishing how few people seem to realise this!

Where to do you get your inspiration from?

I’m also hopeful that more and more of us, post-COVID-19, will be prepared to listen more carefully to the voice of the Earth. I get my inspiration from Nature (having done more than my fair share of tree-hugging over the years!), brilliant authors (one of the most joyful things about writing a book is the opportunity to get lost in other people’s books), and young people.

I had my 70th birthday a few days ago, and decided, as a birthday present to myself, to give away copies of Hope in Hell to 70 young climate activists around the UK, given that the book is dedicated to ‘young people today already stepping up with the kind of conviction, courage and compassion on which our future now depends’.

How can people find out more about you personally & your work?

At www.jonathonporritt.com and on Twitter also.

I recently had the pleasure of recording a conversation with the wonderful @CarolineLucas to discuss the climate emergency, coronavirus, #BuildBackBetter, my new book #HopeInHell & more. Watch here https://t.co/hBRHLHXOLH

— Jonathon Porritt (@jonathonporritt) July 2, 2020

https://irishtechnews.ie/hope-in-hell-a-decade-for-climate-emergency/

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