My Easter weekend was nauseatingly wholesome. There were multiple Easter egg hunts. There were sous vide eggs. There were malfunctioning GWR trains accompanied by giant Cornish pasties. Then there was a visit to the Eden Project, the first for my daughter. This former china clay pit that has been transformed into a world-famous eco attraction has been on a global mission to show us that we should be ‘living with the grain of nature’. Or to lift a potent verse from Disney’s Pocahontas belter, ‘You can own the Earth and still/All you’ll own is Earth until/You can paint with all the colours of the wind’ (OG soundtrack of choice for Earth Day, and don’t get me started on the lessons that film taught me about interracial relationships).
Therefore, what better place for my daughter to really get to the nitty gritty of climate change — two incredible biomes housing tropical and Mediterranean flora and fauna that need us to care for them if we want them to care for us. Along the ‘climate zig-zag’ walk down to the biomes, ‘Enid’ and ‘Alan’ were guiding the under-10s through their little quest to save the planet. ‘So if we have the solutions, what’s the problem?’ asked one placard. A pertinent question, but when asked alongside the distraction of an activity book wordsearch, the lure of a Cornish ice cream truck and, oooh, A GIFT SHOP, suddenly the world’s CO2 emissions are forgotten. By the time we made it into the tropical rainforest and there was talk about Costa Rican native crops, the six-year-old began to fan herself with foraged banana leaves and lie down in the cool room. In the literal bubble of Eden’s biome, the world’s problems are presented through gentle signposting, excellent facilities and it feels that, yes, the planet can be beautiful with the right custodians. It was perhaps optimistic though to think my daughter would go all Greta Thunberg and grasp the sense of urgency.
The road to the end of the world is signposted by eco clothing lines in earthy tones and Little Greene shades of soft sage and terracotta
In his book What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warming, Norwegian psychologist and politican Per Espen Stoknes says that the doom and gloom rhetoric around climate change generally instils fear and guilt in people, which in turn makes them more passive. I’d argue that the gently padded world of sustainability is making us even more passive as the road to the end of the world is signposted by lovely embroidered eco-conscious clothing lines in earthy tones, Little Greene shades of soft sage and terracotta, and plant-based restaurants that will cosset our tummies with tofu and ethical grains. The theme of this year’s Earth Day is ‘Invest in Our Planet’, which for most people in their general consumption habits means buying into those aforementioned lifestyle choices that happen to put us in a gentle momentary lull. Our kids will take an hour or two to learn about Earth Day delivered through animations, illustrations and a positive spin. Every day is of course Earth Day, but it doesn’t feel like it when the run-up is a holiday marketing drive.
Supposedly mankind isn’t equipped to deal with an existential threat, unless the problem is immediate, tangible and with a clear resolution — like figuring out how not to get eaten by lions. Maybe we need to start going for the jugular to snap us all into collective action. Douse that sage in red. Disaster imagery akin to blackened organs on cigarette packs. Bring on capital letters and exclamation marks. Extinction Rebellion but channelled for the everyday. Something that doesn’t divert our much-needed attention… well, elsewhere.
