Change and social pressure
Hi everyone
The most encouraging news this week is from BP – whose new chief executive has said the company will be reducing its oil and gas exploration leaving some fields it owns untouched while expanding or starting a massive investment in solar/wind power and electrical infrastructure for cars. Even Greenpeace has welcomed the statement. And given that BP’s carbon footprint is larger than the whole of the UK this is really highly significant.
One reason is that investing in the oil and gas industry has become less and less socially attractive whatever the financial return. A consequence of this social shift is the increasing difficulty of recruiting top class staff without a switch in policy. A tipping point has been reached….and others will follow this lead. This is the way change happens.
The start of the school year approaches and it is not clear just how many parents will be sending their children back in the context of the pandemic. People have concerns about their children becoming ill, about themselves becoming ill, and about the children infecting others such as grandparents or those shielding. Putting aside the few exceptions of those at high risk of serious illness through their own already compromised state of health, we know that for the young and for children in particular this is a mild illness. We also are reasonably sure that children with covid-19 are less infectious than an adult with the same illness. We know that staying at home adversely effects a child’s development and wellbeing not least because of their lack of social contact. And finally we know that unemployment which would be increased with their staying at home is unhealthy – indeed the ill health from the pandemic’s financial effects may prove to be greater in the long run than its short term direct effect. These are all rational arguments to encourage people to send their children back. The hesitation comes from a different place – the very real pit of the stomach anxiety created by the successful project fear that kept us all in lockdown. The national situation has moved on and many people have yet to catch up. I find myself still anxious about doing basic things – I had a haircut this week and was alone in the underused barbers with a masked hairdresser – there might be a good short story in that. We went to London on the train to see our son. We bought first class tickets - quite unnecessarily it turned out - as the trains both ways were virtually empty as was the commuter car park. Pre covid the 2200 from Paddington would have been standing room only. Each step brings us face to face with how others are behaving and the economic effects of that behaviour.
As more and more of us take these tentative steps despite our anxieties, we will free ourselves up and make such behaviour socially acceptable and isolation less acceptable. This is the same process - driven by Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace and many others - that has pushed BP to change its focus. So while we can do this now for the health of ourselves and our community now we have the multinationals starting to help and together we can make a real impact for the next generation. There is some hope in the gloom.
With love
Derek