Pádraig Hoare: Climate triumph or tragedy - it's in our hands
Oxfam's Hot Air Band protest at Glasgow's Royal Exchange Square during the Cop26 UN Climate Summit. Photo: Hasan Esen/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Normally when thousands brave the bitter winter Scottish wind to flock from trains and buses from Glasgow's city centre to watch some of the world's main players be tested and criticised, it is part of one of the world's most famous football derbies, Celtic vs Rangers in the 'Old Firm'.
The eyes of the globe are on the latest battle to be fought out in Glasgow, the Cop26 United Nations (UN) climate change conference billed as a last-chance saloon to save the planet from destruction.
While some have cautioned against apocalyptic messaging around the ravages of the climate crisis, UN Secretary-General António Guterres did not hold back.
He was unequivocal and unambiguous - having made climate change the defining issue of his tenure in office, he was not about to dilute what he perceives as an existential threat as the eyes and ears of the world listens on.
"Our addiction to fossil fuels is pushing humanity to the brink. We face a stark choice: Either we stop it — or it stops us. It’s time to say - enough.
"Enough of brutalising biodiversity. Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet. Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves," he said.
Nightmare nuclear diplomacy has taken on a whole new meaning. Gone are the days of delicate negotiation and gentle political horsetrading. On climate change, in 2021, there can be no compromise.
It is all or nothing, do or die.
Even Boris Johnson, unshackled to meaningful ideology but instinctively in the gravitational orbit of opportunism all his political life, pinned his colours to the mast.
For a leader of a Tory party historically sceptical or hostile towards the causes of global warming and the climate crisis, Mr Johnson was uncharacteristically frank in his messaging, and all in on climate change action.
Or at least he says he is - by his own words, history will be the arbiter of this generation of political leadership.
The palpable anger from countries vulnerable to the ravages of climate change was visceral. In front of their peers, leaders of countries like Barbados unleashed dignified fury.
Because of rising sea levels and more extreme weather, a two degree rise in temperature would be a "death sentence" for island nations, Barbadan prime minister Mia Mottley said.
"If our existence is to mean anything, then we must act in the interest of all of our people that are dependent on us. If we don’t, we will allow the path of greed and selfishness to sow the seeds of our common destruction," she said.
Lest the world is left clinging to a sense of impending doom, it took the soothing words of one of the world's most beloved figures to reassure us that we can right our wrongs with decisive action and that it was not too late.
David Attenborough asked delegates is this how our story is due to end – a tale of the smartest species doomed by that all too human characteristic of failing to see the bigger picture in pursuit of short-term goals?
He added: “Perhaps the fact that the people affected by climate change are no longer some imagined future generations but young people alive today, perhaps that will give us the impetus we need to rewrite our story, to turn this tragedy into a triumph.”
There's still time for remarkable triumph, but also unbearable tragedy. The choice, it seems, is ours.
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