It’s not Just Weather, FFS…

As we wake up to another 4 years of Trump toxicity it’s also time to wake up to where our deeply flawed political systems are taking us. Anyone with a heart will have been horrified by the Spanish floods. And what makes all those deaths and that destruction so profoundly shocking is they didn’t need to happen. 

In Valencia purple crosses have appeared on flood battered vehicles, marking where people lost their lives due to a years worth of rain falling in 8 hours. Every single one of those purple crosses marks the death of someone who died because of the failure of leaders everywhere, especially in the wealthy global north. For 30 years they have failed to act on climate science despite all the warnings and increasingly disruptive extreme weather events. 

Vehicles swept away in the Valencia floods. Over 200 people have died with many still reported missing.

Why? Too enmeshed in the fossil fuel economy? Too scared of the power of the right wing media and of losing votes? 

Or do they really think, like the bots and deniers, ‘it’s just weather’ and ‘the climate has always changed’ or we’ve got time to potter along in the general direction of net zero by 2050.

Unadulterated bullshit. Our leaders have known it’s not ‘just weather’ since the 1970’s. The fossil fuel companies themselves know it’s not ‘just weather’ – Exxon worked it out and told the US government in 1977. Then invested millions in disinformation.  

The scientists, David Attenborough, the late Queen and the current King, the Pope, the UN are saying it’s not  ‘just weather’.  Farmers & gardeners, climate activists, dog walkers, asylum seekers, vineyard owners, bird watchers, fishing crews and every plant, bird and animal all really know it’s not ‘just weather.’

And yet here we are. Babies and their desperate parents drowned, washed away in a wealthy temperate country only a train-ride from the UK. What started with a trickle ended as a terrifying torrent, weaponised by cars tossed about like leaves. And that torrent hasn’t only destroyed lives, homes, hopes and dreams – it has surely destroyed the last glimmers of faith any of us were still hopeful enough to have – that our leaders were going to sort it out.

It’s SO not just weather.  

The regional government in southern Spain laughed at Juan Bordera, a Spanish climate activist and journalist when he presented them with proposals for preparing for floods. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme (Nov 4th) that the Vox party voted against the proposal because ‘it’s an extreme right climate denying party’. The other one, the People’s Party, is a conservative business party, who Bordera said was too concerned about ‘promoting the tourism industry’ and ‘big business’.  They were informed three times in the last year of the threat. Made me think about the Mayor of Amity in Jaws – don’t let danger to people get in the way of profit. 

And now there is Trump. Again. Shamelessly offering us all up to the fossil fuel billionaires in return for cash. 

These leaders aren’t fit for purpose. Like those poor people in Valencia they are out of their depth, out of time and should be out of the door. Taking action to slow down climate breakdown must be put on a war footing. We can’t stop it happening now but we must stop making it worse  if our kids are going to stand any chance of some kind of life.  No community should be left as vulnerable as the one in Valencia. 

And for anyone who thinks human beings aren’t capable of taking action, look at all those ordinary people – mainly the young – travelling across Spain to queue for hours for brushes and spades to help with the clear-up.  

Wouldn’t it be great if we had leaders with that same level of compassion, care and sense of service? Who see their primary function as the protection of the people instead of playing identity politics, prostituting themselves to the oil industry and the right wing media and setting us against one another? Citizen’s assemblies are the way forward for better decision making and to identify the leaders we deserve and need. 

Because this is not ‘just weather’. Sadly it will happen again. And again and again. The suffering of the Valencians clearly shows us how much we all need better leaders. Regional leaders that don’t laugh at warnings and fail to prepare. Government that, unlike here in the UK, doesn’t imprison those who have rightly demanding the state protects its citizens. 

The caring citizens of Spain rushed to help after the floods. Caring citizens everywhere need to insist on action now. Join us at www.juststopoil.com to demand an end to fossil fuels by 2030 and if you want to rebuild our failing politics go to www.TimeToAssemble.org

Before we run out of purple paint.

Fiona Atkinson is a former English teacher, mother and grandmother from the north of England. Using what’s left of her mind, body and soul to demand our government Just Stop Oil & Gas by 2030