For a little island, we manage to muscle our way well to the forefront of the global stage and I’m always proud of how we punch so far above our weight in a whole range of matters.
It sometimes makes life difficult for businesses at first – our early adoption of robust anti-money laundering standards for the financial sector is an example.
And new rules may cause cries of woe from the business community, understandably if they mean less business and/or more costs.
But in the long run, it’s generally turned out to be a good call – earning us respect and a place at the table where international standards are being hammered out, netting praise from bodies like the IMF and keeping us off ‘black lists’ which could really dry up business.
It’s not just in finance – we’re party to a range of international agreements, conventions and the like.
This August the UN Convention of Biodiversity was extended to the island, at our government’s request.
This shows our leaders understand and appreciate the importance of the many and varied species making their homes here – and their economic and other value.
Without the rich biodiversity we benefit from, we would lose not just obvious resources such as food and materials.
We’d also lose out on what scientists like to call ‘ecosystem services’ – the fact that species living here help clean and purify water and air, generate natural soil fertility, remove toxins and pollinate a massive proportion of the island’s plantlife (including of course crops, again).
And a living thriving landscape also improves life – it’s good for the soul to gaze at the green beauty of the Manx hills, to watch seals watching you back as you walk the beaches and to let children dye themselves purple and blue as they forage for bilberries and blackberries on an autumn afternoon.
So here’s what I’d like for Christmas, please, Mr Bell.
I’d like to see the island’s leaders openly discussing our contribution to the global debate on climate change, explaining to the Manx public where we fit in, in our own small way, to the rapidly evolving set of national laws and international conventions that are transforming businesses the world over.
This may mean facing some uncomfortable truths here in terms of old practices that aren’t sustainable – but that’s OK, we’ll find ourselves in good company!
What won’t be OK is to carry on giving the odd bit of lip-service to the demands of a changing world, and then (like the Onceler in Road Dahl’s foresightful take the Lorax) carrying on Business as Usual on grounds that ‘if [we] didn’t do it, somebody else would...’.
It’d be great to see policies on local carbon emissions, foresightful support for electrification of various types of transport (including public), a green jobs strategy – and perhaps most importantly, a credible energy policy for the island incorporating renewable energy technologies.
There are some tremendous opportunities to create open, transparent and positive discussions with the public on relocalisation strategies and new lifestyle choices – let’s do it, together!
I thought I’d leave you this week with a great infographic from Professor James Powell, a scientist who was appointed by both US Presidents Reagan and Bush (GHW) to the US National Science Board, where he served 12 years, and who (rather awesomely) has an asteroid named for him, Asteroid 1987 SH7.
Professor Powell, noting that many people still think that scientists substantially disagree about manmade global warming, analysed 13,950 peer-reviewed scientific articles for their conclusions.
He found that only 0.17 per cent – 1 in 581– rejected it.
He made a pie chart of it, pictured here and published his methodology here – jamespowell.org/methodology/method.html
It looks reasonably conclusive.
I’ll leave you with an apt follow up to Sarah Calverley’s great article last week, in which she highlighted positive ways to a more environmentally-friendly Christmas.
It’s from the often challenging, but always well-informed and entertaining George Monbiot, who begged us all, in a recent article: ‘Bake them a cake, write them a poem, give them a kiss, tell them a joke, but for God’s sake stop trashing the planet to tell someone you care. All it shows is that you don’t.’
