Playing out:
-With the Country Counts Fri June 21st 2024 7.30pm Whitstable Labour Club, CT5 1QP.
-Sat June 22nd 2024 3pm. I will be joined by Chris and Danny Wood. HMV store Canterbury CT1 2TD.
Questions put to HS online by Folkestone Climate Carnival.
twitter @ClimateCarnival
How did you first get interested in the environment and sustainability?
When I left school in the early 1970s I had failed my A levels and went to work on a fruit and hop farm in Harbledown near Canterbury. I spent 2 years working there, being outside and watching the weather, and also watching the chemical cocktails that were being thrown at the plants made me realise that the balance of nature, as it used to be called, was extremely fragile. It seemed that it was not balanced at all and was in flux, which haunted me. This was also the time of the book ‘Silent Spring’, the oil / energy crisis and the hole in the ozone layer. All this was evidence of the repercussions of unbridled human growth and extraction. The idea that we humans were too ineffective to influence the planet was, for the first time in history, proved to be rubbish and that we humans needed to start taking responsibility for our actions.
In the 1980s and early 90s I lived in a city (Sheffield) and was playing in a band so I was less concerned about these things. In 2018 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the UN body of scientists) produced a report (https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/) which was a hair raising reality check about how far down the road to destruction humans were taking the planet and every living part of it. This was despite scientists issuing warnings from the 70s onward. We were suddenly cast as Belshazzar and his nobles seeing the writing on the wall! The difference was that we could read it and had secretly known all along that there was a problem.
What eco-project are you involved with at the moment?
In practical terms the projects I am involved in are the Extinction Rebellion Canterbury Friday Climate Strike, writing music with an awareness of climate change, and personally trying to be careful about my life.
When the carbon hit the fan in 2018/19 the whole idea of climate activism became fashionable with every one wanting to be involved. The human herd instinct did its legendry thing. Many of us, myself included put a great deal of energy into this cause and in the end most of us suffered from and are still suffering from burnout, or exorbitant fines and prison.
But you have to put the oxygen mask on yourself first when things go wrong so you can help yourself and others. I realised when government, having been informed in 2018, failed to take meaningful action to avert climate collapse that for me climate activism had to be viewed as a marathon and not a sprint.
The Friday Climate Strike is a manifestation of that outlook. It is personally manageable: one hour per week and has, at present, no risk of arrest. I enjoy making the ‘Bears cartoons’ to advertise it, finding cartoons a good avenue for my rage! We are on the street reminding people, whether they like it or not, that we have a big problem ‘in the living room’ which is not being addressed!
As for personal actions: I try not to let grief anger and terror take over though that is so hard with the appalling news from around the world. Otherwise it is my task to do as little harm as I can. Obviously we are operating within social, political and economic systems which for most people makes zero carbon living practically impossible. We have to effect change at government and international levels but that will require the engagement of the people in the street who we address in the Friday Climate Strike.
For me the most important message is that if we all got behind dealing with global warming and living in a sustainable way we would feel better and the world would be a better place with the added bonus of a future for everything living on it!
What do you think our biggest challenge is?
Humans! Whilst they can be incredibly clever and ingenious they are failing to bring these abilities to bear in a timely fashion on the biggest threat to their future…themselves.
I quite understand the ‘Why should I give up flying to my two foreign holidays a year, drive a smaller car, and spend money on insulating my house?’ point of view.
Conversely with so much inequality and injustice in the UK it is easy to see that those in poverty view ‘moving to a sustainable life style’ as something that they do not have the capacity to engage with. Inequality and social responsibility have to be addressed. If the government of the country does not act, it looks to the people on the ground as if everything is OK and nothing needs to change. Peer reviewed science says otherwise.
What gives you hope for the future?
Greta Thunberg says that:
‘To me, hope is not something that is given to you, it is something you have to earn, to create. It cannot be gained passively, through standing by and waiting for someone to do something. Hope is taking action. It is stepping outside your comfort zone. And if a bunch of weird schoolkids were able to get millions of people to start changing their lives, just imagine what we could all do together if we really tried.’
The Climate Book, Greta Thunberg, Allen Lane / penguin 2022. P421.
I have lived through a period which has been the most pleasant for humans and the most damaging for the planet. Yes I am a ‘babyboomer’ and this has occurred on my watch. Now it is my responsibility to do all I can to change the current trajectory towards climate collapse. How will people, if any, judge us in 100 years for our behaviour at this time? Pretty poorly I think and I do not want to die feeling I could have done more.
Hope: well I just had lunch laughing with two clever and ingenious climate activists discussing where the climate movement was now.
We have come a very long way since 2018. For a start Global warming is now on the agenda at the UN and in the news. Industry is waking up to the fact that it is happening and if they want to remain competitive in their field they have to adapt. Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, governments, with their short term election cycles, have shown appalling lapses in leadership which boarder on, or are criminal.
When we started the Friday Climate Strike in Canterbury two years ago very few people were interested. Now we give out many more leaflets and talk to more people who are interested. At the moment they are more ‘curious’ interested than ‘action’ interested but it is a slow step forward. Unfortunately we do not have that kind of time to waste as carbon emissions are still rising, but at least it is something.
Yes I know climate activists of all people should be talking about hard statistics etc. The paragraph above is anecdotal but trust me, I have watched the change! If all those people started to vote and take action on behalf of the planet. If all those people joined with each other and started to work together…
Lastly I say that there is no magic bullet for this one. The climate emergency is very complicated and interlinked. That does not mean we should not try stuff. We simply do not know yet what will blow apart the current locked cycle of political and economic thinking and move us into a better new normal which engenders a future for the planet. For a couple of years my bet has been on insurance and that now seems to be playing out. Insurance and reinsurance is a big part of the current economic status quo and involves big money. In some areas people cannot insure their properties. Carbon generating industries are finding it harder to insure their investments. But there will be many other contributing factors to the change when it happens.
The biggest contributing factor will be people joining together, raising their voices and going all out for a future!
Henry Sparks 2024. henrysparksmusic.co.uk