Stern Warning

Green tax plans to hit drivers and air travellers

Last Thursday I attended the annual Earthwatch debate here in London. Although a great number of the attendees were scientists, the onus was on ways in which we can all change our lifestyles before life on this planet vecomes doomed. I was astonished just how many academic theorists were not actually paying too much attention to their own behaviour, whilst commendably promoting alteratives in their professional doctrine. The buzz behind the scenes was a mixture of fear and exitement - largely due to an impending report by Sir Nicholas Stern which will be published tomorrow.

It will make unpleasant and somewhat urgent reading for the government and its conclusions affect all of us. Indeed, climate change and global warming may have been on the popular agenda for a while now, but we knew about it back in the late 1960s and, as usual, sucessive governments took no heed as they kept us seduced by a consumer economy. Today's papers have revealed some of what we might expect tomorrow - warming us up, no doubt, for what to all extents and purposes will be a declaration of a "State of Emergency". In Britain, but worldwide too.

Sad to say, some of the solutions will be ripe for inclusion in the Blair Party's authoritarian dream. I actually remember early cricicisms of the "green" movement for its alleged "totalitarian" policies. Certainly, saving the planet always involved some harsh measures and legislation for a collective lifestyle change would have been part of the scenario. The new reality is that such legislation will now have to be even more drastic as we catch up with the failure of recent decades.

Like the proposed abuse of ID cards and the attempted establishment of a surveillance state, we must oppose any moves that adversly affect our human freedoms, opinions and self-determination. On the other hand, we must not be so obsessed with the fundamentals that we inadvertently hinder restrictions on social freedom and environmental abuse that are now needed. It is said that no law is worth its salt unless it is to protect indivuduals from endangerment and exploitation by others. By extension, if our living space, in this case Planet Earth, is being endangered and exploited, it is fair to demand society create the laws to prevent it.

It will mean personal compromises and changes, but failure to do so will be handing the fate of our children and future generations to a culture of criminality whose short-term greed is little more than the now not-so-longer-term pursuit of armageddon.

No doubt I'll have more to say when the report becomes public.

Later.