Column: Changing the cultural climate

People are reluctant to give up their luxuries, writes Catherine Fieschi

The World Today
2 minute READ

This past summer should go down in history as the Great Climate Change Wake-up Call.

In an almost lyrically biblical set of catastrophes, fires burned and encircled Athens, while on the other side of the planet they continued to engulf the Golden State and then closed in on British Columbia.

The staunchly solid German countryside saw its verdant plains ravaged by floods and its red-roofed houses slide into craters. 

As for Italy’s southern provinces, they recorded their highest temperatures ever. 

In this context, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s no-holds-barred report felt like the voice-over in a Hollywood film trailer: ‘Disaster: Coming soon to an idyllic spot near you.’

Our collective attention and human intelligence should be addressing every other crisis through one lens and one lens only: climate and climate policy.

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