Essay: Climate and Covid-19

Taken on Infrared film at Lyn a Fan Fach in the Brecon Beacons National Park. 210mm, Mamiya 7. I was asked to write this piece by my German publishers Heyne to go in an online magazine regarding what I thought the implications for global heating might be with respect to the Pandemic. The brief was as follows: You "switched" the global warming and climate change for the setting of your novel "Early Riser". By end of 2019, I had the feeling the world's society really wants to fight climate change and is really aware and eage to do something. Now, with Corona all around, nobody asks for global warning of course anymore, and there are already voices in politics who say that after the pandemic, climate change has to be ignored, it all has to go into rebuilding the economy. Do you think (or fear) that the nature, our planet, the fight against global warning, will be the real losers of Corona, long-time? My reply below was written on the 20th April, and reflected my thoughts at the time. For anyone interested in editing, my full length piece is at the top with the final shortened version at the bottom. Sometimes a judicious blue pencil can really improve matters. I think I had an eye to marketing, while Christian really just wanted an opinion. You can view it online, in German, here. "..Satire is a useful tool in the speculative writer's toolbox: Firstly, to highlight the more absurd vagaries of human existence in a humorous fashion; Secondly, to make a fictional world recognisable as our own - that what happens to my characters is familiar to the reader; And thirdly, it's a good way to engage one's reader and ask political/social questions without seeming annoyingly preachy. Early Riser is no different in this, and stylistically sits comfortably between Shades of Grey and The Constant Rabbit, both of which also mix quite serious social commentary while cunningly disguising themselves as comic absurdity. The climate question within the pages of Early Riser is, I think, similar to the climate emergency that we face ourselves - although I've juxtaposed this to make the issue global cooling which while the opposite, is no less threatening - it just seems that in this case, it's not our fault. In an obvious satirical nod to the real world crisis, the residents in Early Riser seem to be attempting to do something about it - releasing CO2 to kick of a 'greenhouse effect' and are in some argument as to whether this is the correct course of action. Similarly, my characters do not talk about the issue; it is a future threat to which they have found themselves adapting - and have been doing so for a very long time. But the overriding sense of understated yet tangible menace I was trying to instil was that the humans in Early Riser are facing almost inevitable extinction. Try as they might, and no matter how humans are pressured to reproduce, the numbers game is not on their side. Yet they still love, and care, and go about their daily chores irrespective. It's not a story about climate, of course, it's about Charlie, who needs to find their place and function within their world. In that respect it's not a very unusual story at all, but the opportunity exists within speculative fiction to have your story set against a greater inferred narrative, of which climatic change is a very obvious example. So how does this relate to the current pandemic, and is there any intelligent comments I can make? Firstly, the Pandemic shows that we actually don't need celebrities at all - many of them are suffering the hardships of reduced relevance, which I hope will reflect itself in renewed humility once this has gone away, although somehow I doubt it. Secondly and more seriously, it shows that humans can really only deal with one Existential Threat at a time. The contempt we gave scientists who warned we were not prepared for a Pandemic matches the contempt we held for climate scientists. After all, who likes someone who tells you the party is over when its really only just begun? It's astonishingly hard for us to witness a good day today and not think it will be different tomorrow. And while this sense of blind optimism is quite comforting in the short term - no-one wants to wake up in a panic every morning - it doesn't really work when it comes to dealing with pressing, long term issues. We have come a long way since hunter gathering, but our minds have not evolved to keep pace with our scientific achievements - we're trying to deal with 21st century issues with a mind not wired for global domination. But it's not all bad. The current pandemic has also shown us that when 'potential threats' are upgraded to 'actual threats' then contempt for 'experts' is quickly reversed. Here in the UK the government is now 'following the science' and listening once again to experts. Evidence based decision-making is back in fashion because it works. Might this sudden outbreak of mature thinking be rolled out post-Pandemic for Climate Science? Is this our wake up moment? Could a epiphanic event be rolled out for more? Should we be listening to experts in world economy, International law and global ethics? While even the staunchest optimists would not entertain we'd go quite that far, there does here exist an opportunity, similar to the far-reaching ideas born of the ashes of the Second World War: The United Nations, the Declaration of human rights, and the European Union to name but three. Possible? I truly hope so, and while 'rebuilding the economy' is fast becoming a clarion call from politicians everywhere, it does strike me that the 'return to normality' that they espouse is only a 'normality' that is most convenient to those who stand to financially gain the most, and for those in power to retain it. The Pandemic has demonstrated that the lowest-paid workers are truly the ones we can't do without; that national health systems are the most invaluable jewels, and that the captains of industry of which so many flowery words have been written, rely utterly on low-paid workers to keep them - and by reflection the nation - fabulously wealthy. If left-leaning leaders aren't taking advantage of the current mood of the planet to tackle climate change and wealth disparity, they're missing the opportunity of a lifetime. It will be hard, I think - the capitalism juggernaut will take time to stop and slow down, or perhaps more usefully and quickly, repurposed to our needs, but with the right leadership and a general will for change, it could be done. No problem is ever truly intractable. The greatest regret of climate change may not be that it happened, but that we had an opportunity to fight it - and through short-term self-interest and sheer laziness decided that doing the right thing was just too difficult. But we can do the right thing. The Pandemic has also shown us that we are highly adaptable and can make major changes in our lifestyles pretty much on a dime - and have the capability of so much altruism - humans are always at their very best when things are at their very worst. I live in hope. Jasper Fforde 2020 And now, just for interest and to see how editors cut an article from 1000 words to 425, this was the version that eventually appeared online: "...Firstly, the Pandemic shows that we actually don't need celebrities at all - many of them are suffering the hardships of reduced relevance, which I hope will reflect itself in renewed humility once this has gone away, although somehow I doubt it. Secondly and more seriously, it shows that humans can really only deal with one Existential Threat at a time. But it's not all bad. The current pandemic has also shown us that when 'potential threats' are upgraded to 'actual threats' then contempt for 'experts' is quickly reversed. Here in the UK the government is now 'following the science' and listening once again to experts. Evidence based decision-making is back in fashion because it works. Might this sudden outbreak of mature thinking be rolled out post-Pandemic for Climate Science? Is this our wake up moment? While even the staunchest optimists would not entertain we'd go quite that far, there does here exist an opportunity, similar to the far-reaching ideas born of the ashes of the Second World War: The United Nations, the Declaration of human rights, and the European Union to name but three. Possible? I truly hope so, and while 'rebuilding the economy' is fast becoming a clarion call from politicians everywhere, it does strike me that the 'return to normality' that they espouse is only a 'normality' that is most convenient to those who stand to financially gain the most, and for those in power to retain it. The Pandemic has demonstrated that the lowest-paid workers are truly the ones we can't do without; that national health systems are the most invaluable jewels, and that the captains of industry of which so many flowery words have been written, rely utterly on low-paid workers to keep them - and by reflection the nation - fabulously wealthy. If left-leaning leaders aren't taking advantage of the current mood of the planet to tackle climate change and wealth disparity, they're missing the opportunity of a lifetime. The greatest regret of climate change may not be that it happened, but that we had an opportunity to fight it - and through short-term self-interest and sheer laziness decided that doing the right thing was just too difficult. But we can do the right thing. The Pandemic has also shown us that we are highly adaptable and can make major changes in our lifestyles pretty much on a dime - and have the capability of so much altruism - humans are always at their very best when things are at their very worst. I live in hope.