Wednesday 18th October

Bill Clinton won an election pretty much on the slogan “It’s the Economy – Stupid.”  And it is true that most people probably vote for the Party or the Candidate who will either protect, increase, or at least not damage, their financial future.  In reality, although Governments can change the tax rates and can subtly encourage investment or give the go-ahead for Infrastructure – there is a limit to how much they can really create Wealth or avert a financial downturn, when and if they almost always come around.

But the biggest threat to our long-term well-being is probably the one we tend to ignore because it is far harder to see.  The environment.  Now, there are increasingly more and more sceptics – who say that Global Warming has nothing to do with Human Activity.  I am not a scientist, but I find it hard to believe that almost the entire scientific community have made it all up.  Whether Global Warming is mostly caused by us, or sun-spots, or some other reason – I have no doubt that we have contributed to, and that we should be doing all we can to mitigate, this warming.

Increasing Industrialisation driven both by Population growth and development of third world countries is exacerbating the problem.  It must seem quite hypocritical for Western industrialised and successful countries to be telling emerging countries to slow down their economic growth, but still we must try.

We cannot continue forever extracting minerals and oil from deeper and deeper in the planet simply to be burnt or thrown away or turned into plastic which will be around for hundreds of years.  We cannot stop the technological revolution which will destroy many traditional industries and make millions of jobs redundant. But we must find a way to control Capitalism.  We must invest far more in renewable energy.  We cannot simply leave it to the Free Market, which is neither free or a real market.

And it is only by countries co-operating rather than competing that we will build a future for our grandchildren and their kids too.

The economy may fluctuate with booms and busts, but we will all suffer unless we wake up and start to really sort out our dirty world.