therealljidol, season 11, week 1 -- Resolution
In 1998, Bill Clinton was President of the USA, John Major was Prime Minister of the UK, and I was 12 years old.
Leaving scandalous "extra curriculars" to the side, and with the haziness born from both looking back that far, and the age I was at the time, they both seem to be competent, sensible people. If their time were now and I could speak with them, I highly doubt that I'd agree with all, possibly most, of what they're standing for. (I didn't know much about politics then, and I haven't specifically researched this since, either.) But, as competent, sensible people (self included), I am reasonably sure that we would at least all be having the same conversation. Furthermore, I have a degree of hope that even where we'd disagree, there would be at least some attempts by all sides to understand and validate the concerns of those with whom we were disagreeing. "I see where you're coming from but I think ________ ." Others older than me may express cynisism at that point. I don't know. I was 12 years old. But that is my hope.
Whilst I was twelve years old, I read in my Science textbook about CFCs and the hole in the Ozone layer which they caused.
What seems really astonishing to me now, but really, really shouldn't, is that when our scientists told us about this, we actually changed. Our politicians listened, and actually made changes. CFCs were made illegal. Aerosols and refrigerators had to be redesigned, and they were. And actually the landscape changed so far that I don't think it even still says on the packaging, "CFC-free". Because it doesn't need to. Because noone at all is using CFCs in any way, just like noone is still putting lead into petrol or paint, or asbestos into buildings, and noone makes labels about those things either. CFCs are entirely history.
Another thing about which twelve year old me read in her textbook, was fuels. It said, the oil will run out in 2020 [except for fracking, it basically has done], the gas by 2030, the coal by 2050 and the (safe) nuclear by 2075. But not to worry, because we already have the technology for wind power, solar power, wave power, and other renewable energy sources. In another few decades, we might even have fission!! Which means we can use the same materials over and over and over again, so we'll never ever run out of energy ever again! What's more, now we have the Information Super-Highway [AKA the internet, for the under 30s!], so scientists all around the world can work together much, much more easily! It's going to be incredible! So we can work on making the environmentally-friendly technologies widespread and even improving them, during these last few years that we have the older, non-renewable supplies, and once all the pollution they caused has dissipated, then it will be clean air and good energy all around! Wonderfulness for everybody!! *rainbow emoji*
Optimism to the point of naivity, I think, given what's followed. I do paraphrase, but that was the message.
A large degree of international co-operation also led to the setting of the Millenium Development Goals. A fifteen year plan to bring important things like clean water, education and basic healthcare to the whole of the world, not to catch them up, exactly, but so that they would certainly not be as far behind and we could then go forwards with more unity on a semi-equal footing. Even as the leaders changed; Tony Blair, who was better decribed as "charismatic" than "sensible", and all it took to riddicule a President was to "misunderestimate" him. Even then... hope reigned supreme.
Until.
Until some idiots hijacked an aeroplane and drove it into a building (twice over), war errupted in the Middle East, and suddenly everyone forgot to care.
We looked up in 2004/5, and saw the world again. We started using words like "climate change", we started caring about widespread flooding and deforrestation, and the melting of the polar ice caps. We were well off course to meet the five-year interim targets of the Millenium Development Goals, but we honestly believed that writing to our politicians would be enough to get us back on track. Large concerts (rallies with music?) were organised to "send a message"; everyone was wearing white rubber wristbands; it was the year of Make Poverty History.
Was that when the tide changed? Or started to? When we all campaigned for a whole year or more, and, materially, nothing was any different? There were some donations to charities, a (very) small reduction in international debts owed, and... that was it? Compared to the scale of the problem... barely enough to register?
The widespread flooding in our homelands continued, but not as bad as it would become; issues like LGBT+ equality were taking up all of our politician's time, and then the ecconomy tanked completely and everyone became exclusively focussed on their own back yards. We barely noticed when we sailed past the second set of five-year intermediary targets for the Millenium Development Goals without even having met the standards, or half of the standards, for the first; nationalism started to rise. Ironically, around much of the world.
We looked up again, briefly, in 2012. Good news! The hole in the ozone layer was shrinking! We also had competent, sensible politicians again -- did you ever see any with more stateliness than the Obamas?? -- but the people on the street felt removed from them. I think this is when 'not vaccinating on purpose' started becoming a thing, which of course went on to lose us any international credibility to deliver a vaccine program where it is most needed. New wars errupted in the Middle East and North Africa. Some we were involved in. Some from earlier from which we were still trying to extract ourselves. Some perpetrated by young men, who were young boys when we destroyed their families, now seeking revenge against us. Flooding continued, globally, but also in our homelands. Not exclusively, not even necessarily causing the most damage and almost certainly not the most loss of life. But it focussed us back on ourselves, not the international community, once again. Oh, and smartphones were now ubiquituous, so everyone's distracted. Even for those who want to stand for change, there's too much information, too many causes, too much fragmentation, for anyone to really make any kind of difference. The Information Super-Highway Bites Back. Sounds like a bad horror movie. In a way, it is.
And now where are we? September, almost October, 2019. "Fake news", "alternative facts" and "climate change deniers" are... everyday language. Our politicians repeatedly break the law, and are treated with apathy. Democracy breaks down. Stateliness is nowhere to be seen. The United Nations passes decrees, but we ignore them. Well, I don't even know if they still do. It seems like a long time that I've been saying "it's all going to hell in a handbasket anyway, it's just a matter of how badly." I don't recognise the world I described from 1998 when I look around. I don't think it will ever be like that again. I don't know how it could possibly become more unglued than it currently is, nor where we go from here; but then again: I've said that before.