- The Guardian
- Issue #2202
Allister Heath is a right-wing British opinion columnist, easy to ridicule. There’s even a website which will generate Allister Heath headlines on any topic under the sun – type in any word and you’ll get a headline denouncing whatever it is as a ‘woke’ plot to destroy British civilisation.
Recently, Heath has been extensively mocked for an article announcing that the UK is too small to have any affect on climate change, and that the best course of action is for people in Britain to do absolutely nothing to lower emissions and just enjoy the “Mediterranean climate.” Heath gave this advice at a time when countries in the Mediterranean are literally on fire, and the UK is experiencing drought, heatwaves, and excess deaths.
Although it’s been deservedly rubbished, Heath’s opinion has long been predicted by climate campaigners. He’s in the last stage of climate change denial – accepting that the climate is changing, but arguing that it’s too late and there’s nothing that can be done. Now that the effects of climate change are all around us, pretending that the science is still uncertain doesn’t work any more.
Despite the silliness of Heath’s call to enjoy a “Mediterranean climate,” many might agree with his argument that it’s too late. This attitude is called doomism. It’s wrong, and it’s dangerous. Wrong, because there’s a lot that we can to prevent a climate catastrophe. Wrong because a lot has already been done. Governments have been pressured and dragged into actions that have avoided millions of tons of harmful carbon emissions. As climate analyst Ketan Joshi says, government action means we’ve avoided the worse-case scenario. Government inaction means we’ve also avoided the best-case scenario.
Doomism is very convenient for fossil fuel companies who want to squeeze the last drop of profit out of business as usual. It’s dangerous, because if people just accept that climate harm is inevitable governments do nothing, and emissions don’t go down drastically, climate change will get a lot worse and many more people will die.
Another thing doomists like Allister Heath overlook is this: climate change doesn’t just happen for no reason. Climate change is happening because of capitalism and neoliberalism. Capitalism has one imperative, the search for higher returns on investment. Other things only matter if they’re in the way of higher returns.
Neoliberalism is the idea that capitalism works best unhindered by regulations or supervision, that ‘small government’ produces the best society. Capitalists love this idea because it makes their job of chasing higher returns easier. Neoliberalism makes putting profit first look like the moral thing to do.
In the name of ‘small government’ and less regulation, the neoliberal government of Margaret Thatcher privatised trains and water. Train prices are through the roof, and the privatisation of water has been a total disaster as the new owners saved money by skimping on maintenance and raising prices. Water is something the British are being asked to ration now.
What’s needed is action. Neoliberal capitalism has had its chance to fix climate change. Instead it has made it worse.
We can’t capitalism our way out of climate change. What’s needed is a system that’s run by the workers, who make up the majority. That’s what the Communist Party of Australia is working for.
