Proms and protest

Greta Thunberg is everywhere. The 16-year old Scandinavian climate activist is expected to arrive in New York today after crossing the Atlantic in a carbon-neutral yacht, but her voice could also be heard at the Proms on Sunday night as part of a show inspired by the book

The Lost Words. This celebration of nature was described as “a unique event for all the family”, although the younger ones might have been scared out of their wits when Ms Thunberg’s voice announced that we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction and 200 species are going missing every day. Is this kind of apocalyptic detail appropriate for such a concert?

The will to address climate change is found across the political spectrum: Boris Johnson told the G7 that they need to do more to save rainforests. So there is consensus on the desire to protect the environment, but there isn’t on the scale of change happening or what to do about it. Media elites too often ignore this and broadcast the most alarmist, terrifying predictions as if they were agreed by all, with the obvious implication that only the most radical response will do.

It has been joked that many of the extreme environmentalists are watermelons: green on the outside, red on the inside. What Miss Thunberg and others demand is a revolutionary economic change that resembles socialism, and while the rich can afford to sail the world in yachts, it will be the middle class and poor who are forced to give up necessities. If you live in a rural area, the demand that you get out of the car and walk is simply silly. Politicians should listen less to under-representative activists and more to their own voters. And the Proms should be primarily about the music, not the politics.