United we Stand

When faced with the enormity of an issue such as climate change, it is all too easy to feel utterly helpless. As we are force-fed more fatalistic griping about the aggressive advance of climate change, a passive fatigue kicks in and it becomes all to easy to surrender to our bleak fate.

But a new campaign has been launched which aims to combat the sense of feeble paralysis that has the nation in a headlock for too long. 10:10 challenges Britain to cut carbon emissions in the UK by 10% in one year. The brainchild of Fanny Armstrong, filmmaker behind The Age of Stupid, and in collaboration with The Guardian, 10:10 asks individuals, schools, hospitals, businesses and organisations to cut their emissions by 10% in 2010. How? Just by making simple changes to lifestyles, homes and workplaces.

But hang on a minute, how is changing a light bulb in my kitchen going to reverse the zealous tide of global warming? How is insulating my roof going to stop the economic crises that climate change has triggered in the global south? Isn’t this really a case of too-little too-late? Critics argue that the miniscule changes that campaigns such as 10:10 ignite are an ineffectual drop in the ocean of this global emergency. Britain accounts for just 2% of world emissions, and a 10% reduction of this is perhaps futile. It is the emerging carbon-brazen superpowers such as China and India who are the real culprits, and it is there where action must be focused. How can any campaign in little old Britain have any real impact on the ultimate global problem? Perhaps 10:10 has just been designed to give us yet another reason to smugly pat ourselves on the back and congratulate ourselves for being oh-so-environmentally-responsible. Are campaigns like this just a cosmetic quick fix, a kind of green-washing of our lifestyles that can absolve us from taking ultimate responsibility, merely providing us with a bit more sand to bury our heads in?

The short answer to this question is no. To me, skepticism is the ultimate in passivity, and it is these kinds of cynical excuse for inaction that often prove to be the largest stumbling block to sustainable change. What 10:10 does is to establish a workable middle-ground between a) belittling the scale of global warming with too-achievable targets such as recycling our beer bottles, and b) the scaremongering approach that suggests we don’t even bother since we’ll soon all be crispy bacon anyway. This campaign finds a place between these two poles and presents action that is tangible, achievable and meaningful, giving people the chance to feel encouraged and inspired by the sense of a war-effort-scale response to the climate crisis.

And aside from the sense of cohesive change that the campaign instigates, there is another, more powerful level to 10:10, in that it could bring about significant global action on a political level. The campaign puts pressure on British politicians to cut UK emissions as quickly as science allows, enabling the nation to act as a blueprint for the rest of the world, and inspiring other big polluting countries to follow suit. And it seems the campaign has already packed a people-power-punch, as within 48 hours of its launch, the leaderships of the three main political parties had committed to cutting their own emissions by 10%. Along with the cabinet and shadow cabinet, Brown, Cameron and Clegg have all jumped on the bandwagon. Forcing the British government to move faster might enable it to take a leadership position in Copenhagen in December at the key conference in which a global climate change treaty will be written. Developing nations – in particular China and India – have consistently argued that they won't submit to binding carbon limits until they see evidence of the rich world tackling the problem it largely created – so it may be that 10:10 is part of the evidence they need.

And in terms of another kind of politics – that of consumerism - 10:10 has brought about a varied and formidable band of supporters ranging from the online grocer Ocado, three major energy companies, a Premiership football club, unions and NGOs to influential figures in the arts, show business, religion, TV and politics. What were seemingly impossible alliances are now being formed in front of our very eyes, as a diverse bunch of heavyweights unite to fight for a common cause.

A meeting of the world's most eminent scientists in London in May concluded that unless carbon emissions begin falling within six years, we have little chance of avoiding warming beyond the critical level of two degrees. Above that level, scientists fear ‘feedbacks’ could kick in, leading to runaway warming and extreme weather events that could leave millions homeless and starving. Campaigns like 10:10 may seem trivial in the face of the enormity of the crisis, but they give people the power to take collective action, action that has the potential to have a snowball effect on a global and on a political level. 10:10 is not only about changing your light bulbs and insulating your roof - it is about confidence, it is about responsibility, it is about people power, and above all, it is about hope.