Labour retreats on Climate and Biodiversity Collapse

JVL Introduction

Here Paul Rogers writes about the government’s astonishing lack of interest in scientists’ warnings about accelerating climate breakdown. They cling to a mantra of “growth, growth, growth”, hoping to claim more than the UK’s fair share of dwindling global resources to stave off the playing out of capitalism’s contradictions of unending growth on a finite planet. Future generations will pay for our profligacy. Rogers lists indicators of the disappearance of climate safety, starting with the planet’s hottest January ever. We are in ‘overshoot’, praying that unproven technologies will emerge to save this generation from the condemnation of a history that few may survive to write.

Rogers finds it remarkable that the fossil fuel lobby trumps the dividend that the government could reap from exploiting the low price of renewable energy, and the popularity of cutting fuel bills through mass insulation of homes. But even Rogers  misses the first rule of a sustainable economy: REDUCE. It is not about switching to electric vehicles but also using far less of them, relying instead on public transport.  It is not just a matter of switching to renewables – there is a need to reduce overall energy use. This is an orientation change urgently needed by those embracing the adoption of AI with its thirst for the limited resources of both energy and water.

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TB

This article was originally published by Open Democracy on Fri 7 Feb 2025. Read the original here.