At Last Some Good News

Monday 14th December

There are people who say I am a cynic. I know it is hard to credit, but apparently one or two of you have doubted my profound optimism.  It is true that I have posted the occasional blog exposing corruption and greed and ignorance, or pointing out the obvious errors in Politics or Religion, or bewailing our lack of compassion; but I am at heart a positive person, as anyone who reads my blog will surely appreciate.  And at last some good news.  The Paris Climate Change Conference has come out with a broad agreement to limit the rise in Global Temperatures to well below 2 degrees Centigrade.  Or should that actually read the rise in Global Temperatures will be limited to, well, below 2 degrees anyway – not much below and 1.5 is only an aspirational target.   And 2 degrees will mean slightly less severe changes to the climate, a bit more flooding and weather disruption true, more deserts and faster melting of the ice-caps, but it could have been so much worse if we had gone over 2 degrees.  See, how can anyone say I am cynical after that?

But of course it is a day for celebration.  Almost 200 countries have agreed to water down a final declaration so that it is anodyne enough for Governments to ratify, and yet can also be sold to the general public as a great achievement.  And of course it had to be an agreement, otherwise there wouldn’t have even been a Conference in the first place; they have been working on this for years.  The final two weeks arguments were simply about the wording of the final declaration (ten hours spent on deciding where the commas would be placed).  But at least it is something.

But wait.  Haven’t we been here before?  Rio? Copenhagen?  Weren’t they hailed as great achievements too?   At least though the Environment is top of the news agenda at last, just pipping the price of petrol slipping below a pound a litre (which will surely slow down our reliance on burning of fossil fuels).  So stop thinking that all the news is bad.  There haven’t been any reports of bombings in Syria for at least a week now.  There have been no terrorist attacks (today, anyway) and Donald Trump has declared that if he is President he will build a wall around the whole of America and not let any Muslims, or Irish or Gypsies or Jews or Black People or Queers or Women or Cripples in; all the Americans inside will be allowed to drive their cars wherever they want all over America only stopping to buy guns and burgers, so we can all sleep safe in our nuclear shelters for four more years.