Article: The end is nigh: is survival all we can hope for?

'The End is at Hand' placardFor his Battle of Ideas 2011 satellite event in Derby (The end is nigh: is survival all we can hope for?, on 11 October) James Woudhuysen wrote in the Independent Blogs about the modern day subsumption of everything to the Apocalypse and the lack of ambition of politicians:

In the 1980s [many thought everything] had to take second place to preventing [nuclear] Armageddon… Thirty years on, at Chris Huhne’s Department of Energy and Climate Change, it’s the same story: the survival of the Earth trumps all other arguments… the Coalition has put reduction in the demand for energy at the heart of its policy programme… consumers must be ‘engaged’ in their energy consumption… Rein back your profligate energy use if you want to avoid… the Apocalypse!… Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne [portrays] climate change as an already-established ‘disaster’… The Coalition has repeatedly postponed plans for growth… New Labour’s ‘Plan B’ for growth is even weaker on innovation than [Osborne’s]… Labour has nothing to say about higher productivity in industry, construction, agriculture or services [and has] confirmed its desire to put Britain into suspended animation… politicians [can] think of nothing more ambitious than to maintain the status quo.

The end is nigh: is survival all we can hope for?, James Woudhuysen, Independent Blogs, 11 October 2011 [Shared bookmark]

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