THE FATE OF THE WORLD

How our Future is Written in the Past (extract 2)

This is the second extract from my next book, due out in 2026

Don't look around you

So this is where we are today. We have built a civilisation that some will laud as a success, but it is one that fails the majority, is utterly antagonistic to the natural world, and – through driving up the global average temperature at an unprecedented rate – is sowing the seeds of its own failure, and quite possibly its ultimate demise. To the extent that dangerous climate breakdown, affecting every aspect of our lives and livelihoods, is now impossible to dodge, we are playing Russian roulette with all six barrels loaded. The only question is, just how bad the consequences will be when we pull the trigger.

The problem is that, broadly speaking, we don't want to hear any of this. We want tomorrow to be just like today, and even when we know – in our heart of hearts – that it isn't going to be, it is easier and less traumatic to pretend otherwise.

For many, giving thought to what's happening to the climate is a luxury that simply can't be afforded. If you are one of the 800 million people across the planet facing long-term hunger, or one of the five million plus adults here in the UK, unable to afford to eat three meals a day, then you understandably have other priorities. But even those of us blessed with a cosier and more secure existence prefer to turn away from the problem.

In his brilliant 2021 film, Don't Look Up, producer Adam McKay satirised establishment figures and the mainstream media, who refused to acknowledge the existential threat presented by an incoming asteroid. Those of you who have seen the film will I am sure be aware that it is an allegory for the ongoing climate emergency, and that it doesn't end well. To those of you who haven't, I apologise for spoiling it. In the real world, we rarely look up, but more critically we prefer not to look around us either; and if we do, not to take in what we see. Much better to instead maintain a blinkered view that shuts out the bad stuff, and protects from us from the true picture of the future that is hurtling our way like an express train. As one of my heroes, legendary British television animator Oliver Postgate – of Bagpuss and The Clangers fame – wrote, in his wonderful autobiography Seeing Things: “the real future is what is coming up behind us, but we can't see it clearly because someone has stuck smiley faces over the wing mirrors”.

Reality does indeed have a habit of sneaking up on us. When a wildfire rips through a village on the edge of London; when temperatures in maritime Canada peak just short of 50°C; when floodwaters submerge one third of Pakistan, then it becomes ever harder to pretend everything is fine, ever harder to avoid looking around us. And if and when we do, we can't fail to see a world that is changing for the worse. Everywhere we look, the climatically-stable world – the safe place – that nurtured the growth and development of our civilisation is beginning to fall apart.