On Saturday An alarming approach to climate change

EVER had the feeling everything around you is taking a turn for the worse? Not exactly a cheerful way of starting a newspaper column, but the second I sat down to write this, a media industry email arrived reporting the rapidly rocketing cost of paper – most worrying for a hard-pushed industry that is totally and utterly based on the stuff. One newspaper publisher has reported a 65% year on year increase in the cost of newsprint.

As in so many other walks of contemporary economic life, the war in the Ukraine gets much of the blame. Who knew Putin’s madness would cause so much secondary damage in so many diverse ways? Everywhere you look there seems to be some kind of economic fall-out caused by that insane war.

On the reverse side of the commercial coin and nothing to do with Russia, there is an industry doing very well indeed – the one manufacturing over-the-counter pharmaceuticals used to treat the common cold. The end of October apparently marks high season for sales of these powdery and pill-shaped wonders. I should know, I’ve been investing heavily in them this week.

Not that they really help if you’re suffering a full-on stinker. Yes, they smooth the rougher edges, but only because they can make you feel slightly drugged and removed from reality. That’s my impression at least. Maybe I’m trying the wrong brands or remedies.

Or perhaps I really do suffer from the malaise which used to be called ‘man-flu’. However, you’re not meant to use such phrases anymore – and that particular one really does step into “gender-shaming” territory. Not that accusations of man-flu ever bothered me – I know I’m a wimp and believe that owning up to it is the most manly thing you can do because it means you are confident enough in your own skin to survive such slapdowns.

Having said, that our old friend the common cold can be a right little sod sometimes. It can certainly exacerbate that negative view of the world mentioned in my first sentence. Nothing seems to look jolly or appealing when viewed from the wrong side of a box of Kleenex tissues.

If I was wanting to reflect on something positive right now I’d probably alight on the wonders of the Covid jab. Thank god for it, I say. When the pandemic first hit there was talk about gaining herd immunity – the idea being that if we all got the coronavirus a few times we’d build up a communal and individual defence against it. But we humans show no signs of gaining immunity to the common cold. I realise it rarely kills people (and I am aware that over 200 different forms of rhinovirus or coronavirus nasties come under the all-embracing title), but what puzzles me is why we fail to gain an improved immunity as we grow older. As a fairly fit bloke in my 60s I suffer worse now from a cold than I did 30 years ago.

I thought our bodies built up defence systems. I envisaged armies of little antibodies somewhere in the bloodstream led by bewhiskered officers crying: “OK chaps, hot-nose alert! Incoming! We all know the procedure – been here many times before. More than 130 times in fact, given we’ve caught a cold at least twice a year and the old boy insists on going into crowded pubs and other unhealthy places. Man the microbial barricades!”

There were, of course, two years when very few of us caught colds – hiding from the germ-laden hordes during the covid lockdowns. Maybe that’s why snuffles and sniffles are back with a vengeance. Our antibodies have got rusty.

And here’s another thing that seems to be going rusty at an alarming rate – our new government’s approach to climate change.

If we return to the first sentence in this column, then it’s Rishi Sunak’s apparent downgrading of the issue that has been worrying me more than anything else. I realise the common-cold induced blues can exacerbate such fears but, as a newly fledged grandparent, it is the uncertain future faced by my two baby grandsons that causes me to lose sleep at night.

If the new leader of one of the world’s most influential nations can’t be bothered to turn up to the premier gathering set-up to tackle the planet’s number one existential threat, what message does that send?

It says: “We’ve got problems on our small island and they’re more important to us than anything that might affect the entire planet – even if it’s already starting to cost human lives and trillions of dollars.”

Little Britain, indeed.

Neither the Prime Minister, nor his senior ministers are prepared to attend the international climate change conference with nearly 100 other world leaders – BUT they are planning to attend the World Cup in Qatar.

That speaks volumes. If the government was looking for a publicity stunt which announced Britain’s final withdrawal from the world stage, they’ve found it.

The phrase “to have friends and influence people” used to signify something desirable. Our government seems to believe the opposite is true. It can’t even keep the friendship of the UK’s own home nations.

But who knows? Maybe we’ve just caught one big communal cold – in which case, best keep it to ourselves and not pass it on to others.