Wednesday, 14 July 2021

Schizoid on Climate?

It's difficult to deduce the real feelings of people, even in one's own country. An optimistic article from Carys Roberts (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/14/uk-faster-action-climate-crisis-politician-citizens-juries) reiterates a message from citizen's juries. She says people in the UK want bold climate action and can't understand why the politicians aren't listening. These citizen's juries involved people from a number of sectors of the country who were briefed by science experts before stating their preferences. It all sounds very positive. A concern is that the citizens appear to be a somewhat self-selected group and were 'fired up' by what they were told. Sadly, I have to contrast that with an opposition party exercise (Renaissance), finding that their 'lost' voters would only return, if their party created jobs in particular areas and demonstrated 'economic competence' (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jul/14/voters-still-unlikely-to-trust-labour-with-spending-party-warned). There is nothing wrong with jobs (so long as they are right type) and competence is always desirable. It sounds, however, awfully like the usual environment versus jobs/wealth divide, evident at many planning exercises.

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