Life in the year 2009 CC
May 28th, 2009 by Steve Sherran
The last five years has seen the media dominated by the big CC. The big CC, of course, being Climate Change. The environment, renewable energy, carbon emissions, carbon trading, the nuclear or coal debate, energy labelling, ex presidential candidates making movies about polar bears, we heard and saw it all. And the media hyped us all up into a frenzy, promising that our children and our children’s children would reap what we’ve sown. You could see people putting down deposits on houses in middle England with the view that in the next ten years or so, you could have a seaside cottage in the Cotswolds.
And it wasn’t just in the newspapers. In boardrooms up and down the country, energy efficiency moved rapidly up the agenda. Should we change our light bulbs? Do we need an energy manager? We’re not doing this to save money said the MD to finance director, we’re doing it as part of our corporate social responsibility and for the benefit of the polar bears. Lots of earnest conversations, lots of assurances that the investment is worth it long term, lots of corporate feel goods as the last one out switched off the lights to save not money, but carbon, and the polar bears obviously.
Then, some guys in pinstriped suits got caught playing Monopoly with real money. Someone threw a four instead of a six and Climate Change was rapidly replaced with the new CC. Credit Crunch.
Pretty much overnight Climate Change ceased to matter. Polar bears? Toxic Waste? Toxic debt more like. And why should it? Let’s face it, the best way of reducing carbon emissions in, say, the house building market is not to build any houses. Can’t say fairer than that. No building, no emissions.
The media coverage on climate change disappeared completely. What was the number one issue facing the world has simply been forgotten. Not just in the press but in the boardroom too. No more earnest conversations about carbon emissions, lots of conversations about bad debt, reducing overheads and vanishing profits.
As no one is talking about it, I’m assuming it’s gone away? Problem solved? Of course not, it’ll be back and the media will be on the case for the polar bears just as soon as they’ve finished exposing the remaining MP’s expenses. As for me I’ve put down a deposit on a nice semi in Chipping Norton.
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Tags: bad debt, carbon emissions, carbon trading, climate change, credit crunch, environment, renewable energy, vanishing profits
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