Nothing’s worked. More diplomatically put: nothing has yet worked at anything like the pace required. Is it any wonder that desperation is growing?

The closest anything came to working was Extinction Rebellion in April 2019. The radical flank of the environmental movement punched a hole through complacency and denial and raised climate consciousness permanently. But it didn’t succeed in its ultimate aim of provoking meaningful climate action from the UK government.

Governments over the world are simply not taking the findings of climate science seriously. In parallel, the same governments resist the blunt and terrible truth that the world can no longer stay below the 1.5℃ “safe” heating limit. This year’s United Nations climate summit, starting in a week in Egypt, is extremely unlikely to admit this failure. Yet deep down, everyone who pays any attention to the climate debate knows.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing therefore if academics, environmental and business leaders— even committed politicians, not to mention activists—were to admit that nothing yet has really worked? The public is waiting for those brave enough to speak these truths and to invite a broad and popular response. But it won’t happen anything like quickly enough if the public continues not to be trusted with the full reality of our situation.

This is the tragedy of the moment. Because it is frustrating the full emergence of so much energy and endeavour that will become a new moderate flank—one that is all about you: all about where you work or the communities where you live, acting collectively in the day to day to turn around the legacy of failure outlined above.

By way of example: lawyers can express their professional agency by choosing what clients and what business they take. The same goes for insurers who can disclose what they know about the rising threat we face. For academics and teachers, it’s about transforming what your teaching and research is about. And for those with access to land, it’s about building resilience and inviting the community at large, including those who you may not agree with politically, to join in.

It’s about fully facing and sharing the reality of the situation and acting on it. This is the opposite of a recipe for doomism. In lieu of anything even remotely resembling adequate plans from our “leaders”, we need to embody an exit strategy from fossil fuels or else we’ll eventually go to an end.

So it’s clear the next big step forward in climate action must bring the public with us. We need together to step beyond the lures of polarisation, roll up our sleeves and get down to business by identifying the underlying reasons for past failures.

What do the examples listed in Paragraph 6 illustrate?