Ed Miliband is right:
climate change and its effects are far, far too important to be left to the
petty vagaries of party politics.
Never mind that the
policies – or near non-policies – of the present government are following the
disastrously negligent path taken by his own party when in power. The vital
thing now is to learn from and avoid past mistakes, not to waste time in laying
blame.
No party, no
politician, can expect to govern for long enough to take the long view. Which
leaves us with a succession of short-term tactics and no longer-term strategy.
Governments give all
their attention to relatively unimportant things like money and fail to plan
for such serious matters as rising sea levels or changing weather patterns.
If the present floods
have taken them by surprise, they have no excuse for that. No previous
generation has ever been so well informed by science.
The unpredictably of
the weather was predicted, in some detail, years – no, decades – ago. But the
politicians weren’t listening. They stuck their fingers in their ears because
they didn’t know what to do.
Or rather, they did,
because the experts were telling them – but they didn’t want to know because it
was all too big, too difficult. Especially for people whose careers weren’t
going to last that long. Especially if they took decisions that would be
unpopular – in the short term.
My own profession hasn’t
helped. Much of the press still keeps finding the odd crank to set up against
the 95 per cent plus of rational scientists and pretending that is “balance”.
The reality is that
there aren’t always two sides to every question. Sometimes one answer – such as
that still being peddled by the climate-change “deniers” – is just plain wrong.
Perhaps the present
flooding in southern Britain, the severe cold in North America, increasing
episodes of “freak” weather everywhere, will make the head-in-the-sand brigade
think again. Or perhaps not.
In the meantime, even
if halting or reversing climate change is too big and hard – certainly for one
government, or one country – can we at least do something to mitigate the
effects of the next inevitable drenching winter?
Like not concreting
over fields and gardens, ripping out trees and hedges, failing to maintain
ditches, continuing to build homes on flood plains, and all the rest of it.
It’s not as if we
weren’t warned, long ago, where all this behaviour would lead us.
-----
I’ve never enjoyed a
Winter Olympics this much before. But then, no Olympics before has included the
slopestyle events.
And somehow I’ve never
cottoned on before to the astonishing spectacle of aerodynamics that is the
snowboard halfpipe.
Snowboarding may be a
young sport for young people – surely nobody as old as me has ever ridden a
board in contest – but the sheer exuberance of the competitors has been as
enthralling as the skill with which they fly through the air nonchalantly
performing near-impossible feats.
It wasn’t just the
novelty value of a British winter medal that made Jenny Jones’s bronze-winning
run in the snowboard slopestyle an occasion for joy. Her performance was a joy
to watch – and so was her response, not just to her own medal but also to the
gold-winning display of her friend and rival, the American Jamie Anderson.
That camaraderie
between opponents, the obvious pleasure they have taken in each others’
achievements, has been one of the delightful aspects of the whole snow show.
In stark contrast to
the exponents of certain other sports – mostly better-paid ones – these have
looked like people it would be pleasant to know.
The intelligence, good
sense and sheer niceness of Lizzy Yarnold, the gold-winning British skeleton racer,
have been remarkable, but not exceptional. She will surely succeed admirably in
her stated intention of being a role model for young girls, but she is not
alone in that.
As for those glorious
show-offs of the halfpipe – if I was 40-odd years younger I’d be inspired.
If not, perhaps, to
try physical feats that would always have been far beyond me, but maybe by
their sheer style. Are there, after all, any cooler dudes on the planet –
except maybe the slopestyle skiers?
The Swedish skier
Henrik Harlaut may have suffered the fate risked daily by teenage boys
everywhere when his low-slung trousers slipped far enough to topple him on his
face. But his style in the air, blond dreadlocks flowing from his helmet in
every direction, was glorious.
The commentators on
these events, un-BBC-ish as they are, have added ripely to my enjoyment of the
past 10 days. Without their guidance, I might not have known how unlucky
Harlaut was to be judged just outside the medal places.
Even from the comfort
of my sofa, I found literally breathtaking his chutzpah in attempting – and
bringing off – tricks whose very names were new to me. Nose butter triple cork
1620, anyone?
At risk of inducing
cringes among those young and cool enough to have known before last week the
meaning of such terms as truck-driver grab, pretzel 180 and switch triple
rodeo, I’d say these Games have well and truly stomped it.
- Postscript: the curling has been unexpectedly riveting too...
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