Government, State and climate foot-dragging

This popped up on facebook, when someone had asked if the elite politicians “get” climate change threats, how come there is so little action.  It’s only a partial answer, I think…

I think the key thing is that “the government” and “the state” are not the same thing. The state is much broader – made up of functionaries, bureaucrats and, yes, scientists. They have their own blinkers and ideologies too, but they are not (so much) in the pockets of the rich. The government is simply the politicians of the party that managed to get power (either by absolute majority of seats won in parliament, or coalition as now, or occasionally a minority government). As politicians they are a) usually power-obsessed/narcissistic/greedy (NOT always!!) and b) worried about what they will do when they are out of government or out of parliament (five year election cycles etc etc). And c) monumentally scientifically illiterate. Very very few of them have anything other than a law degree or PPE at Oxford or Cambridge. And they are easy pickings (both Labour or Tory) for lobbyists from powerful/rich companies. And they love the idea of technological progress – most of the people in charge today grew up in the 60s and 70s, before all the shine had been taken off our sense of power…