Glib buzzwords and political slogans are mostly oxymorons these days: slipping casually into conference speeches, radio interviews and megaphone diplomacy on social media, and almost always without serious substance…sloganeering and buzzwords like “liberal elite”, “stop the boats”, and (could we forget this one), “take back control”. Take it back from who exactly and hand it out where?…And how, at one and the same time, can a liberal demographic possibly be an elite? Of course it might simply be too late to expect serious debate on serious issues (although I still cling to that hope)…but every now and then some lumbering, red faced politician stalks up to a podium and shakes my complacency to the core. That happened again last week…
Inevitably, the red-faced politician, operating at full volume as ever, was Donald Trump, and of all the places he could choose to lumber, he chose to lumber at the General Assembly of the United Nations. For fifty-seven excruciating minutes (forty longer than his allotted time), he served up a whole bucket load of absurd buzzwords and slogans, amongst them that climate change was “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world…and if you don’t get away from the green energy scam, your country is going to fail”. Seven years ago, at the same podium, he was met with derisive laughter …this time the collected heads of state listened in bewildered silence…and so did I.
Trump barked out that he was “really good at this stuff” before warning, “your countries are going to hell”. Well, maybe they are, maybe they’re not…but if so, it’s that same lack of serious engagement that’s paving the way, and Trump is personally laying the path to hell with his own meaningless buzzwords and slogans.
So, lets look at the facts: is climate change actually a “con job”?
Since the 1990’s the world’s major centres have seen a 25% annual rise in “extremely hot days” (https://www.iisd.org/): a stark and unmistakable symptom of an intensifying climate crisis. The International Institute for Environment and Development, no slouch when it comes to telling things as they are, reported a radical increase in the number of days the planet’s most populous cities have experienced daily temperatures of more than 35C, rising from 1,062 a year from 1994 to 2003, to 1,335 in the last nine years (with the rate doubling in London, Rome and Beijing, and tripling in Manila). Extreme heat, caused by global warming, is likely to have contributed to the early deaths of millions of our fellow citizens over the last thirty years, with the elderly and the poorest in society among the most likely to succumb.
Does that sound like a “con job” to you?
And last Thursday the Global Centre on Adaptation (https://gca.org/) went so far as to launch a remedial campaign called, not unnaturally, “The Heat is On”: designed to accelerate the scaling up of practical climate solutions, each intended to save lives, protect our precious planet and accelerate delivery of sustainable life style solutions: especially for those millions living in conditions of absolute poverty.
Does that sound like the whimsical inspiration of a “con job”?
Not a bit of it.
And what about those impoverished communities that are bearing the full brunt of an economic revolution in global commerce? Shouldn’t we be doing more than whistling while Rome burns? Shouldn’t we be creating sustainable jobs in their local communities, helping build sustainable growth, and starting to grow a fairer and more egalitarian community worldwide? Of course, we should… It's time to let slip the buzzwords and dogma and take real and sustainable steps to start to make things better.
For a start, we can begin to embrace Green Tourism, to promote environmental protection standards, support local communities, and respect our precious cultural heritage too. So why hole up in an emission-belching concrete monolith of a hotel, isolated from its local community and stuck in a mindset where tossing towels in a bath and economising on soap still passes for a sustainability policy? Global tourism currently accounts for a striking 8% of global emissions, so the potential impact of eco-tourism is enormous. And given recent surveys consistently suggest 60% of business and recreational travellers actively seek out eco-friendly destinations, what better place is there to start?
Whatever Donald Trump might think, or, indeed, bark…It's high time we faced the facts.
Eco Hotels
Red Ribbon is the founder of Eco Hotels, the world’s first carbon-neutral hotel brand, which offers “green hospitality” as part of a progressive rollout across India, designed to take advantage of current market opportunities on the subcontinent. The brand meets all key sustainability criteria without compromising on either quality or standards of hospitality and is designed to cater to commercial and recreational travellers alike.
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Red Ribbon Asset Management (www.redribbon.co) aims to harness the full potential of fast evolving and emerging technologies to meet the needs of global communities as part of a circular economy, fully recognising the compelling demands of planet people and profit.
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