Every so often you read something and you think “good heavens! That’s answered a lot of questions!” Even better when the are questions you hadn’t even thought to ask. One article which did it for us was Five years on, the world is failing to learn the gilet jaunes’ lesson about class and climate by Oliver Haynes for the Guardian. [1] So instead of out usual round up of the week,* we’re going to devote our Friday slot to this single piece. Here’s why.
For many of us concerned about climate change and pollution, there is one truth that dare not speak its name; It’s a middle class thing. Go on any protest about roads and most of the people in the crowd are graduates. Go to any awareness afternoon in southern England, and its full of educated mums selling eco soaps to Guardian readers. Now we at LSS believe both groups are our people, the brightest and best in the population. But we are a minority. We are still not cutting through. And waiting in the wings are the right wing press and the oil barons, just waiting for their chance when we slip. In England, that chance came with the ULEZ fiasco. In France it was the Gilet Jaunes. Too many of us sneered at these protestors. Perhaps this single quote from Oliver shows how badly we misread them
……Nor is it to say that “the people” don’t want to reach net zero. In my reporting from France, I have met gilets jaunes who care deeply about the environment; they just found that, for them, the end of the month was arriving before the end of the world
And Oliver makes this point in various ways in a short pithy and easy to read article that we strongly urge you to take on.
So, before we sneer, before we feel superior, let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a van driver, a builder or a farmer and ask ourselves how we would feel. Because here, looking right at us is the ultimate way to win the issue forever. if we only play our cards right.
#climate change #global warming
Learning, Science and Society 