Can a commitment to honesty help resolve the climate crisis?
A Climate of Truth is the latest volume from sustainability researcher and consultant Mike Berners-Lee, author of popular books on climate science including How Bad are Bananas? and There is No Planet B.
Here, he goes beyond climate to address the wider polycrisis. This is an increasingly common term for the multitudinous shit creek into which we’ve collectively paddled ourselves.
As well as rising temperatures and still-increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the polycrisis encompasses a tangled web of global woes. Think of endemic microplastic and PFAS pollution, biodiversity loss, faltering food security, pandemic risks – and try not to get too depressed.
The first part of the book outlines the problems and how we got here. It inevitably covers a lot of familiar ground, but I always welcome an updated refresher on the nature of the catastrophe.
Berners-Lee has a very readable but data-driven style. For example, he spends several pages on why greenhouse gas emissions continue to steadily rise despite the growth of renewable energy production. It’s a very clear exploration of what economists call the Jevons paradox, where improvements in efficiency result in worse externalities as increased consumption outweighs the per-unit savings.
It’s not all a litany of doom, though. Berners-Lee acknowledges that relentlessly focusing on the negatives can easily trap you continuing inaction and despair. But you have to face the reality of the challenge before you can even start to take meaningful action.
Structures of obstruction
The middle section looks at the common factors which obstruct action on the various elements of the polycrisis.
This is again a familiar litany: political and financial short-termism, the failure of mainstream economics to account for physical limits to growth, corporate capture of what should be a critical news media, and widening inequality. An ever-growing share of resources and power are controlled by a tiny minority with a vested interest in maintaining or expanding the worst aspects of the status quo.
Some of the villains of this section are also among the loudest voices for techno-optimism. This is the comforting belief that some technological breakthrough is just round the corner which will painlessly fix everything.
That attitude can be well-meant as a counter to environmental pessimism, but it can also be used as an excuse to block or ignore meaningful near-term action. Think of fossil fuel companies pushing the unproven long-term promise of direct carbon capture, while ignoring the immediate imperative to reduce consumption.
I was interested to see a reference to one of my old employers, the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. The centre commissioned Berners-Lee’s Small World Consulting business to help select projects which can genuinely “create the conditions under which the world can become more sustainable”.
That is welcome and well overdue, if used effectively. But it seems difficult to square with the centre’s continuing support for fossil fuel companies on “blue” hydrogen projects, and aeroplane manufacturers on “sustainable” aviation fuels which Berners-Lee rightfully criticises elsewhere in the book. The centre also carries out a lot of military work with companies such as BAE Systems, with which Small World declined to work on ethical grounds.
Of course, it’s easy to be pious, and hard to live up to all your proclaimed values, especially when you need to make a living.
Restoring truthfulness
The final section of A Climate of Truth digs deeper into how politics, business and media are enabling the polycrisis, and how they could be improved.
The common problem is a lack of truthfulness. This covers everything from flat-out lying by the likes of Boris Johnson, through various levels of bullshit and greenwashing, to subtler techniques of distortion and misdirection.
Berners-Lee rightly calls out much of the media for their failings. Of the mainstream press and news channels, only the Guardian, Financial Times, Economist, BBC and Channel 4 News come out relatively well. I wouldn’t argue much with that (I subscribe to the Guardian and Economist, and have written for the FT), although he is maybe too harsh on New Scientist for being part of the Mail stable.
The news media is now dwarfed by the public relations industry, of course. Berners-Lee highlights the very damaging activities by parts of the sector, using techniques honed for tobacco companies to protect the interests of fossil fuel companies and other polluting industries.
It’s almost a relief when he notes that there is a role for responsible marketing and advertising, which needs to do more than just avoid blatant untruths. His proposal that all marketing should detail the full social and environmental costs of a product is unlikely to win much support from either producers or supporters, however.
As earlier philosophers noted, change starts with the man in the mirror. The problem is no one likes being forced to take a look at themselves, warts and all.
Berners-Lee provides a checklist of personal actions than enlightened individuals can take. For example, everyone should look for work and employers that genuinely provide some benefit to humanity line with Paul Polman’s work on Net Positive organisations. He does acknowledge that that won’t be easy for everyone.
While this kind of advice is always worthy, I’m not convinced it fully takes account of human psychology. The awkward truth is that people often prefer comforting lies. Meaning well is rarely enough in the face of strong behavioural, social and economic headwinds.
Doing the right thing needs to be easier and more rewarding than just going along with the bad. Research consistently shows that most people are willing to take action on climate, but often don’t realise that they’re in the majority. That sense of isolation feeds inertia.
The stories we tell and share can help change this. We need to show that doing the right thing on climate is more popular, easier and more rewarding than it’s portrayed by those who seek to stymie meaningful action.
Renewed values of honesty plainly isn’t sufficient to solve the climate crisis – or the wider polycrisis – on its own. But it is a necessary step on the difficult road to a sustainable and tolerable civilisation on planet Earth.
We need to tell better stories than the liars.
I’m always looking for interesting books on climate, sustainability and communications topics to read and review. Recommendations are welcome – email me at tim@othersfield.com