Letter to the Editor: Climate crisis is a result of decades of globalisation
Fergus Finlay’s column on the mental health of each of the leaders of the US and UK is humourous and frightening at the same time, though maybe not for the reasons put forward within the article ‘
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I propose that the two leaders, while not improving their respective countries response to climate change, are not responsible for the decades of irresponsible government policies that have led to the current global predicament.
The current predicament is directly correlated to the rapid globalisation since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, with Ireland and EU to the forefront of that acceleration. It was led by centrist political parties driving that charge. On the homefront, we now have massive levels of homelessness, huge hospital waiting lists, mass destruction of natural habitat, increased pollution, consumption, massive increase in public and private debt, and record levels of drug crime and addiction. In the global sense, we have increases in deforestation, pollution, and migration on scales never seen before, except during the Second World War.
And with the predictable cyclical recession due, the media and our so-called leaders focus on the bad boys in the class while avoiding the elephant in the room — the systems we slavishly follow are driving the kamikaze behaviours of ever increasing and unsustainable growth, more consumption, and more mass animal extinctions to satisfy an ever-increasing individual consumption across the planet.
A relatively easy example for journalists to look at is the consumption and waste rates of our parents in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, and of the rates today. Until the leaders and media highlight the real problems and possible solutions, we’ll keep on repeating the 2008 crash but on a much greater and more destructive scale. Fix our own house first and provide a positive example for the world.
