Swindon Think Slam, Second talk - why do we let politicans lie?

Why do we let politicians lie to us? 

We could try and persuade ourselves that we are powerless to stop them or we can blame the press for not holding them properly to account or pretend to ourselves that that they are of such low life that we should expect nothing better.  

But, what would happen if we got our wish and the politicians suddenly spoke the truth, what would they say to us?   

They would say something like this; 

Atmospheric CO2 is at 400ppm and increasing so fast that catastrophic global heating is unavoidable. As a result sea level rises will be so high that we must immediately start evacuating our coastal cities and decommissioning our nuclear reactors.

There will be no energy to enable us to do this, because we will either run out of energy or the climate change agreements we reach in December this year will be so draconian that we won't be allowed to burn what we have. All the critical life support systems in our energy intensive economy will cease to be reliable, from the refrigerators in your homes to the logistic systems that deliverer food and emergency aid.  

In the chaos that we face, we will be unable to trust any other nation to abide by international law and we expect increased proliferation of nuclear weapons. 

There will be no money to fund responses to any of this because our debt based financial system relies on future prospects of growth for its liquidity. As there are no prospects for the future, there will be no money.  

With a global population heading towards 10 billion, all these problems will be magnified by mass migration, panic and endless war.   

That is what our politicians would tell us if they were to tell the truth, and then they would ask us to vote for the cold blooded rational policies to address these crises so they had the mandates they need but which we fear giving to anyone.  

And what would you do if you heard the politicians telling everyone the truth and you realised the masses now know what you fear. You will do what everyone else will do, you will race to your nearest Tesco to rip the food of the shelves and beat to a pulp anyone that tries to stop you, meanwhile everyone will be doing the same. 

It will be a free for all, and it is to stop this that we accept the lies of our politicians. We all know that none of them can balance the budgets, fund the NHS, tackle climate change or solve wealth inequality, but we accept these failures as the price for stability and we hope against all reason that the lying can continue indefinitely. 

So we go to the ballot box and partake in the charade, because that's all we can do.  

See http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Vortex-Violence-losing-climate-ebook/dp/B00PUNSI06

Original of Independent Letter

This letter is the original of that published in the Independent on 17th April 

Climate change: time is shorter than we thought

Atmospheric CO2 has risen above 400 ppm and is accelerating. The Arctic Ocean may well be ice-free this summer; methane gas is being released from the melting permafrost into the atmosphere and ocean acidification is intensifying. Sea levels are now rising far faster than predicted only a couple of years ago.

All these changes are irreversible. They make maintaining the global temperature rise below 2^oC an illusory goal. The unavoidable outcome of this nightmare scenario is a rapidly deteriorating climatic situation. It will pose grave problems for all aspects of society in the short-term and certainly well before the end of the next parliament.

The effects will be as profoundly economical as ecological and are already evident. The mitigation actions needed are colossal. They will drive up energy demand at a time when international agreements on climate change will require the imposition of strict limits on carbon emissions and drive up public expenditure as tax receipts from economic growth shrink.

The future of all nations is irrevocably and immediately threatened.  Yet we see little to no discussion of this by any of the main political parties during this general election campaign. We therefore request for the benefit of the electorate and as a matter of urgency that all parties specifically set down clearly what policies they propose on the following: 

1. Ceasing all infrastructure development in flood risk areas as determined by the latest science and observations of ice sheet collapse.

 2. Plans to evacuate flood prone cities and to protect critical infrastructure such as nuclear power stations. 

3. Moving to a zero fossil fuel economy by the next decade with full acknowledgment of all the political and economic impacts.

 4. The extent of international co-operation to be pursued on climate change, in particular focusing on the management of security given the  paradox that the global nuclear weapon arsenal (including Trident) is being upgraded  when the futures of all nations are irrevocably and immediately threatened by climate change.

Signed:

Professor Peter Wadhams (Professor of Ocean Physics and Head of the Ocean Physics Group, University of Cambridge)

Angie Zelter (Founder of Trident Ploughshare and Action AWE and Noble Peace Prize nominee)

Dr Mark Levene (University of Southampton, researcher on genocide and author)

Dr Mayer Hillman (Senior Research Fellow at Policy Studies Institute and co-author of “How we can save the planet”)

Robert Aldridge (of the US and previously a Lockheed design specialist on the Trident programme) 

Professor John Whitelegg,

Dr. Robin Stott, Co-chair, Climate and Health Council

Jeffrey Newman, Emeritus Rabbi, Finchley Reform Synagogue

John Pilger (Investigative Journalist and Author)

Paul Ingram (International transatlantic security think tank director)

Prof Paul Beckwith (Climatologist, University of Ottawa)

Kevin Lister (Author of “The Vortex of Violence and why we are losing the war on climate change”)