From top: Taoiseach Micheál Martin is flanked by British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss (left) and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa (right) as he arrived for day two of COP26 on November 1 in Glasgow, Scotland; Eamonn Kelly

The week that was

Most people instinctively sense that when politicians start making promises they might as well be blowing up balloons. A politician’s promise has a half-life that can be counted in minutes and there is no reason to suppose that this will change relative to the importance of the issue at hand, in this case, climate change.

It would be nice to be optimistic, but with capitalism married to consumption and the majority of politicians in its back pocket, we are ultimately dependent on the largesse of a few billionaires to save the world, which is a whole new species of philanthropism.

Still, it was good to see the Cop 26 conference go ahead, even if Russia and China couldn’t be arsed sending a representative. But the fact of the conference taking place is a bit like the US having to acknowledge the possible existence of God. Even if they don’t believe in a deity, they at least have to cut their cloth to make it seem like they do.

So, in that sense the conference may serve some positive purpose. But realistically, what are we actually going to do to save the environment? Stop consuming? Sit in the cold and the dark eating cold beans waiting for the climate to right itself? Is anyone seriously going to do that?

But not to worry. The politicians are on the case, hoping to create new markets of consumption in the sale of electric cars, windmills and solar panels, continuing with the basic paradigm of capitalism, endless consumption, greenly tweaked by politicians.

Fine Words

Boris Johnson most likely has a team of researchers working full time to find the right things for Boris to say, which they then type up and put before him. But by the time the words move from Boris’s eyes to his mouth they invariably develop a patina of a sneer, and somehow, despite the fine words, Boris’s sub-textual message is always one of smirking insincerity.

He was at it again at COP 26, immediately turning the conference into Cop-Out 26. It’s Boris’s brand of cynicism that will likely finish us, because it’s everywhere, residing comfortably in high places.

Micheál Martin seemed delighted to be on the world stage at last, framing a first for a Fianna Fail taoiseach in setting out his stall to save the Earth. Prior to this they were happy luring multinational companies to set up base in Ireland. But Micheál is going for the big one before handing the reins back to Leo.

The Irish Examiner reported that Facebook is responsible for disseminating up to 90% of the climate denial rubbish that appears online, and the majority of it comes from less than twelve identifiable pages, which Facebook refuses to close-down because that might undermine their click-based business model. Mark Zuckerberg, estimated to be worth $98 billion, still apparently needs those few extra cents from fake news merchants.

Blackouts and Copouts

Facebook’s activities, along with Google, may also result in blackouts here in Ireland in the near future, because data centres are hogs for electricity and when push comes to shove the tax-free corporate giants will get first preference. It’s important that they safeguard your data to sell to advertisers because that’s the business model that helps sustain the economy, and the cost for you may be sitting in the dark while your data is being cooled by 24/7 computer fans.

Michael’s contribution towards saving the Earth might begin by paying a visit to Facebook down the road and maybe use the tax exemption deal as a lever to put some pressure on Facebook to close down those climate denial pages, and maybe reduce some of that data hoard and free up the grid for people to charge their new electric cars.

The problem with politicians managing the climate crisis, and with corporations pledging all kinds of reforms, is that both are winners in a capitalist system that relies on cynicism to make its sales.

You can have your markets for windmills and electric cars and solar panels, but until the cynicism that lies at the root of market capitalism is faced head on, all of it will be just the same old marketing spin, with advertising shaping up to sell a shiny, hollow version of environmentalism, without ever challenging the fundamentals of capitalism, such as perpetual growth and built-in obsolescence. Maybe it’s time to start fixing machinery again rather than dumping it. That would be something.

Turning Point

Cop 26, though it was peopled by many of the leading cynics of the corporate consumer system, sporting their spin, was also a positive gesture in the face of that cynicism, most notably in the figure and words of naturalist David Attenborough, and in its sincere attempt to put survival of the species on the agenda, ahead of apparently more important considerations, such as Mark Zuckerberg’s click profits.

David Attenborough, who, at 95, likely won’t be with us much longer, could see the conference in its historic perspective, in the way in which it might be viewed in 50 or 100 years, either as a turning point, or as a last missed opportunity.

Eamonn Kelly is a Galway-based  freelance Writer and Playwright. His weekly round-up appears here every Monday.

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