Very quietly sometime last week, President Macron signed an order allowing the shooting of 18,000 turtle doves this coming season, which is only interesting if you like birds, and if you care that they are red-listed by the EU, and are virtually extinct in neighbouring Great Britain.
Macron has form in this. Last year, he authorized the shooting of 6,000 curlews last July, a bird whose numbers happen to have plummeted by around 90% in the last 50 years. The French hunting lobby is a very powerful one, and the new Napoleon generally bends to their will until a higher authority, thankfully, tells him to reverse his decision.
Macron is just one leader out of 195 around the world, and he is by no means the worst. At least he doesn’t organize to lace his opponents’ tea with Novichok, kill inconvenient journalists, or stoke up racial hatred on the streets of his unhappy cities.
Here in the UK, we all have our own opinions on our national leadership, and, whatever your view, it is probably fair to say that they will not have become any rosier in the last six months. Unlike Trump as he is in many ways, our Prime Minister does however seem to have noted, and emulated, the 45th President’s ability to simply duck questions until they go away, and not be entirely, shall we say, straightforward about anything. I suspect that being disliked by our neighbours is, for him, a badge of honour that denotes toughness, rather than a dumb mistake at a critical time. It’s sometimes a bit embarrassing.
But that is just what the media tend to want you to be, so here’s a little antidote about which my sadness at the the turtle doves inexplicably reminded me.
You wouldn’t think so, but there is one important area in which our country shines as one of the brightest stars in the firmament: action on climate change. The quirky old BBC, which is still where I go to for my news, is not in the habit of revealing good things that governments do, particularly this one, and they are very definitely not for sharing the recent findings of a highly respected think-tank, the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). This is a shame, as within them lies stuff that we should feel very good about, proud even. Stuff that might even drive us to greater and better efforts. And feeling a little bit good about ourselves right now is not a pleasure to be underrated.
Out of 58 developed nations that are covered, the UK comes 4th (after Sweden, Denmark and Morocco) in terms of the steps we are taking to mitigate climate change. For what it’s worth, France is 18th, Germany 23rd, Ireland 41st and the United States, well, you can probably guess. 14 criteria are taken into account, and we are still rising up the table.
According to the UN, we have reduced our emissions by 35.6% in the last ten years (more than any other major economy), generate the lion’s share (34%) of our energy from renewable sources and even went for 67 days, 22 hours and 55 minutes without any fossil fuel power at all during the past summer. Just to put that first figure into context, France has reduced emissions by 12.1%, the USA is flat and Australia has actually increased theirs by 46%. (The Times runs this kind of story from time to time, and the Guardian’s coverage is generally excellent).
Whether you are convinced by the reality of climate change, a sceptic or a downright denier, surely there is only cheerfulness to be found under this particular blackberry bush. We are cleaning our act up. And yes, I know that we have only just started, and we could still do loads more quite easily, but 4th out of 58 is the kind of grade, that if it had ever appeared on one of my school reports, would have made my parents deliriously happy.
All I am saying is that, as you are buffeted by news of the abyss into which our species is staring, you should enjoy your cornflakes a little more tomorrow morning in the knowledge that your own tribe is trying in its small way to make it better.
And not shooting the few turtle doves it has left.
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