We need an Apollo Programme to stop climate breakdown
Today is the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. What can it teach us about tackling the climate emergency?
I find it hard to believe, but today is the 52nd anniversary of the first moon landing, way back in 1969. I was a schoolboy at the time and remember it vividly. In many ways, this seminal event was the beginning of the end for the hugely ambitious US space programme. Despite another five landings following, and all the drama of the Apollo 13 emergency, the final two moon missions were scrapped, along with plans for a moon base and manned mission to Mars in the 1980s. There has been no return to the Moon and – notwithstanding wildly optimistic ravings from Elon Musk and other tech billionaires with more money than sense – a human presence on the red planet seems as far away as ever.
It is probably not entirely a coincidence that interest in space and reaching out to other worlds began to fade at a time when concerns over our own were growing. Today, few in their right mind would prioritise space exploration over putting our house in order down here on Earth. A house that is in severe danger of being trashed beyond repair by a conspiracy of climate breakdown, environmental degradation and mass extinction. Notwithstanding this, space still has a major role to play down here on the surface. Specialist satellites play a key part in observing and tracking many of the features that flag up how quickly our world is falling apart, including ice cover, sea-surface temperatures and land use. The Apollo programme, in particular, also taught us a vital lesson; just how quickly something can be accomplished if it is wanted badly enough. This is encapsulated in a short clip from the now famous speech President Kennedy made in 1962, during which he announced the intention to put a man on the Moon.
We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.
Swap 'stop climate breakdown' for 'go to the Moon' and these few sentences describe perfectly the can-do thinking that a war on climate breakdown requires. So, it seems obvious. What we need is an ‘Apollo Programme’ for climate change. An all-embracing crusade that strives to cut emissions to the bone as rapidly as possible, without obfuscation and gerrymandering. To do this will require retooling the economy and rebooting our wasteful lifestyles to make falling carbon output the measure of the success of our society; not rising GDP, the number of families with two cars, or how many fighter jets we have sold to Saudi Arabia.
The driver for the Apollo programme was simple and straightforward – get to the Moon before the 'Russkies' do. When the alternative is global catastrophe, an ‘Apollo Programme’ aimed at tackling the climate emergency shouldn't really need to be incentivised. Knowing that we will bequeath to our children and their children a world that is not desecrated beyond redemption should be sufficient. Nonetheless, there are welcome incentives too. A zero carbon world will be a cleaner, safer and – almost certainly – a happier one. So what's not to like. The sooner we start the better.
Bill McGuire is Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards at UCL and was a contributor to the IPCC 2012 SREX report on Climate Change & Extreme Events and Disasters. His novel, Skyseed - an ecothriller about climate engineering gone wrong - is published by The Book Guild.