Drain the Swamp

Tonight I watched Leonardo Di Caprio’s 2016 documentary ‘Before The Flood’ about climate change. If it had been chilling it may have been useful but it was truly terrifying as it showed the gathering pace of global warming destruction to low lying regions across the planet. This evening we learn of President Trump’s decision to leave the Paris climate change accord with the claim that he must put the interests of the American people first. He wants to renegotiate an agreement that is fair to American businesses, citizens and tax-payers. Interestingly, his Rose Garden address did not deny that Climate change is happening, nor did he challenge the scientific consensus that our problems are man-made through excessive emissions of greenhouse gases. Without doubt, President Trump’s campaign slogan drew popular support, but the millions of American people who elected him to office could not have understood how deep the swamp is nor how many personnel of his administration are swimming in it. On this side of the Atlantic we struggle to understand how so many people can be duped and systematically poisoned through poor air quality, poor water and food quality while all the time believing that fortress America needs to increase military spending and to send its youth to die abroad. Quite literally these ‘Smoke Screen’ politics serve to distract attention from the practical steps that ordinary citizens can take to protect themselves, their families and societies by modifying their buying decisions at the supermarket each week and by campaigning against the erosion of civil liberties. As Di Caprio illustrated, individual health and global health are interlinked. Choosing to reduce our meat consumption by half would save us from excessive release of the Greenhouse Gas methane from livestock. It would also help to reduce rates of bowel cancer. Reducing our consumption of cooking oil could prevent continued destruction of rainforests in preparation for Palm Oil plantations. I enjoy breathing and I want that our planet can also breathe; but it’s easier with lungs. As ever, we elect politicians and abdicate our responsibility to them. Their shiny policies woo voters long enough to win office from where they can serve their own agendas and those who finance them. When their activities have fallen from favour we wring our hands and file our problems in the ‘too difficult’ bin. This belief in our helplessness is just as much an illusion as what we were sold during the election campaigns. When we live consciously with regard to our health, and that of the environment, we change our buying decisions. When enough of us do it we realise that we can drain the swamp for ourselves. Indeed, we’re the only ones who can.