‌Afterword to the Beacons Story Collection

‌Mike Robinson

A huge body of science has been built up over the last fifty years which unequivocally demonstrates the reality of anthropogenic (man-made) climate change. But many people don’t seem to be listening or are just hoping it will go away. Others see nothing but a threat to their short-term interests. And although governments the world over have understood the dangers, they have yet to take credible action.

The amount of CO2 we humans have pumped into the atmosphere over the past two centuries, at the same time as chopping down the planet’s capacity to absorb the excess, is bringing about an increase in global temperature which will continue to worsen. This is affecting the balance of nature – a balance which took four and a half billion years to develop before conditions allowed for the arrival of humans. For 99.99% of earth’s history, modern human beings have been absent. If we want to be part of earth’s future, we need to wake up to the fact that the earth is a closed system and its resources are finite.

Perhaps for the first time in our history, we need to learn to be sustainable.

Legions of scientists have researched and understood these issues, and have accepted the peer-reviewed scientific evidence. The nature of science is of course that nothing is completely certain, but when a hypothesis has been thoroughly tested and reinforced repeatedly by consistent, objective evidence, it becomes an ‘established theory’. Man-made climate change is one of these. However, a number of influential and well-funded vested interests are determined to exaggerate doubts and exploit any seeming uncertainty to foster inaction. They accuse scientists of not being impartial. But aren’t scientists allowed to be concerned? It is difficult for anyone who has read the science not to be.

There is no great scientific doubt about the fact of anthropogenic climate change but there is, quite rightly, doubt around how quickly the worst effects will start to happen and exactly how severe those effects will be. Some countries are already being affected, and all the models point to severe changes in the not-too-distant future. Until the glaciers have melted and swamped their respective valleys, cutting off a vital source of water to many arid regions – until sea levels have risen and inundated settlements or whole islands – the science will only ever be able to best estimate these events, and their exact timing and severity will remain a matter of hypothesis.

That doesn’t mean they are not going to happen though.

Through their respective Climate Change Acts, the UK and particularly Scotland have shown outstanding moral leadership in tackling this issue. The governments’ commitments to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 are to be commended, although it is critical that these are honoured and translated into real progress on the ground. The emissions targets set in Westminster and Holyrood are testament both to the validity of the science and the strength of concern raised by civil society through the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition.

This doesn’t mean that it is going to be easy – finding palatable and credible solutions is a minefield. Yet civil society needs to stay united in its determination to deal with this issue, and will be crucial in shaping the transition to a lower-carbon economy, helping people get to grips with what climate change is all about and encouraging the rest of the world to follow our lead.

To do this, it is essential that we fund the continuing science. If civil society is the heart and conscience of a just society, then science is the brain, and we need to keep feeding the brain. But we need to do much more than that. We need people who can communicate in a way that reaches those parts of our psyche that science alone cannot reach. We need to find the courage of our convictions and develop an inspiring and engaging vision which people can rally around. We need to promote new thinking and help to challenge short-termism. We need to interpret what the future might look like and take the fear out of behavioural change. We need to develop intelligent, joined-up thinking, understanding better the interdependence of people, the planet and the places where we live and on which we have an impact. We need to embrace the opportunities available to lead the world on a sustainable path by appealing to more than the analytical and scientific parts of the imagination.

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. — Andy Warhol

People cannot be expected to understand climate change if they are not persuaded to listen. They cannot be expected to care if they do not understand. And they cannot be expected to act if they do not care. Yet we need people to act. Environmental writing has an important role to play in encouraging people to listen, care, and act.

Sometimes it feels as if we fear evasive behavioural change more than climate change itself. Or maybe we just feel helpless in the face of such large-scale global concerns. This is quite understandable, but not acting is really not an option. Ultimately change is inevitable. The question is: will change be forced upon us, its helpless victims, through the accidental consequences of our unsustainable behaviour? Or can we influence it and help shape and define it?

At least the fact that we are causing climate change means that we can stop it getting worse. If we choose to.

We need our artists and writers more than ever to help personalize these issues, to engage our hearts and souls and to engender self-belief and confidence in our ability to tackle what otherwise seem overwhelming, long-term or remote intellectual concerns. We need more positive role models which reflect the values we think are most important.

Writers and artists can voice our concerns and build up our confidence to act. By experimenting with different scenarios, they can lessen our fear of change, appealing to people’s right brain: heart, soul, gut, eyes, fingers, ears, and skin; they can immerse readers in, and create a mood for, new thinking in a way that constant recycling of the science simply cannot. They, more than anyone, can help interpret what the future might look like, and take the fear out of change. Ultimately that is what Gregory and I wanted this book to be about.

It doesn’t suit anyone to believe in climate change; it’s an appalling thing to have to contemplate. But it isn’t a matter of belief. It is a matter of scientific observation.

Deep down I believe we all know this is something we have to address, however hard it may be to stomach. And the sooner we stop prevaricating and pretending we can’t hear the alarms, the sooner we can look forward with hope and a belief in our future.

Undoubtedly we face daunting challenges, both domestically and globally. But if we want a chance to prevent the worst, to choose our path rather than to have it forced upon us, then we need to take responsibility and act now. We need to be creative. Resourceful. Thrifty. Some of us will be brilliant, entrepreneurial. Maybe, at last, we will learn as a species to work within natural limits and the parameters of a stable climate. And if we can get there, then just imagine for a moment what we might be able to achieve.

Would you welcome a more altruistic society, one that is more localized and with greater equality? Would you like to have a better quality of life, with less pollution, greed, and waste? How about greater social cohesion, better health, less stress; better co-ordinated transport, a more sustainable economy, and less debt; more robust supply chains; greater self-dependence, and job security? These things are within our grasp. If we really want them. And if we commit to those actions needed to slow down the climate beast.

It’s up to all of us to choose…

No man ever made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he himself could only do a little.’ – Edmund Burke

Mike Robinson is chief executive of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) based in Perth. For the past six years Mike has been heavily involved in many aspects of climate change policy in Scotland and further afield. Since 2006 he has established, chaired, and remains a board member of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, sat (informally) on the board of Stop Climate Chaos in London, and represented SCVO at the Climate Agora in Brussels in 2008. He is a grant panel member of the government’s Climate Challenge Fund (CCF), a member of the 2020 Business Leaders’ Climate Delivery Group, and chaired the Scottish Parliament Short Life Working Group on annual targets. He is a board member of a number of other charities and co-ordinates a carbon reduction scheme in his local community. He has been working with Gregory Norminton to get this book off the ground since they first met in 2007.