Happy New Year

Despite everything, there are reasons for modest optimism

The green future is almost upon us

Nobody ever went broke in this game by being too pessimistic. The spirit of the age lends itself to extravagant forecasts of doom. There is not much of a market for modest suggestions that, despite everything, many things continue to get better. But, as I wrote here last Hogmanay, they do.

Few subjects are more prone to hyper-doom than climate change. And it is easy to understand why. If you are convinced climate change is the single greatest issue of our time and the most significant challenge humanity faces, you are incentivised to argue that NOTHING IS BEING DONE and unless this changes IT WILL BE TOO LATE.

Even then, no actual action will ever be enough; everything should have happened yesterday. Or the day before yesterday. I firmly suspect some climate change activists want to be Cassandra. Only they are capable of appreciating the threat and WHY IS EVERYONE ELSE SO STUPID? Disaster environmentalism warms the soul.

Activism can never rest, of co…