Now it is time for the green enlightenment

By Melanie Smallman

The negotiations at Copenhagen were never going to be easy. So much was at stake, with so much history and so many values, tied in with some complicated science. But while even Ed Miliband agrees that the outcome was ‘disappointing’, it still has the potential to be a positive turning point for the environment – the time when we came out of the environmental dark ages and into the green enlightenment.

Because what is very clear from last week”s discussions, from the furore behind the hacked UEA emails to the research into attitudes to the environment, is that we have not yet generated mass support for climate action. But such support is vital if world leaders are to have the mandate to sign a legally binding emissions reduction agreement – and, more importantly, if we’Â’re to have a chance of tackling climate change.

For me and for many of the ordinary people I speak to on the doorstep, the difficulty is the story at the heart of much of what we say and do about the environment:Â- the idea that nature was harmonious until man came along and destroyed it, so the only solution to our environmental problems is for humans to retreat.

While this might appeal to those in the environment movement who have become disillusioned by modern life and are distrustful of new technologies, most people are very pleased with the benefits of modern lifestyles Â-or at least would like to chance to find out if they are. And if modern lifestyles have caused problems, it is because of ignorance, not malice – ignorance that will be solved by more, not less, human intervention.

So, if we are to get the mass and political support we need to tackle climate change, we urgently need to adopt a new way of talking about the environment. As I and my colleagues at SERA have argued before on LabourList and elsewhere, we need a Â’progressive environmentalismÂ’ focused on promoting opportunity and creating jobs rather than restricting and protecting; on increasing fairness and improving peopleÂ’s life chances rather than simply limiting what we have already; on empowering people rather than restricting people. Most importantly we need a vision of a sustainable future that the world will be clamouring to sign up to.

To go with this change in thinking, this emergence from the environmental dark ages, we need a green enlightenment movement to champion the ideas that will upgrade our civilisation, and to campaign for the unprecedented level of investment needed to develop the new clean technologies that will get us out of this mess. It”s ambitious, and some will say that it can”t be done;Â- that we have all the technologies we need, we just need to constrain ours and our children’Â’s lifestyles. But for those who believe in social progress and the power of human ingenuity to improve peopleÂ’s lives, then there is no choice but to meet this ambition, regardless of how towering it is. Yes it is disappointing that the world”s leaders didn’Â’t wake up to the reality of the climate crisis, but now it”s vital that we all have much bigger dreams.