Dear Mr. Prime Minister, and all those it may concern,
My name is Amelia Penney-Crocker. This is the 22nd letter I’ve written you about climate change.
A study done by the National Institute of Building Science (in America) shows that for every dollar spent on grants aimed to improve disaster resilience, society saves six dollars. Obviously this is an American study, and it’s likely approximated, but it goes to show an interesting point. There are many things governments should do with their money, and investing in the future is one. But there is a problem with this: Governments serve for four years, and in those four years they only do things that will pay off within those four years so that people will see the good they are doing and re-elect them. It looks selfish on the face of it, and it is, but it’s basic human psychology in a flawed system. So governments are unlikely to pour huge sums of money into things that won’t become helpful for decades, because when that time rolls around they’ll be dead, or at least out of public office (unless they’re Winston Churchill). That makes it extremely hard for governments to want to do anything about Climate Change.
Climate action is an investment and a hugely important one. More important than a retirement fund, or an RESP, because when the time comes around for it to be important it is impossible for us to take on a second job or not retire, because once we pass the point of no return on the climate, that’s it.
One way to make it easier for yourself to stomach pouring huge amounts of money into climate action is to imagine your daughter going into a career in politics and becoming Prime Minister in the year 2050, (it shouldn’t be hard for you to imagine this as your father was Prime Minister before you.) Because of lack of action here and now in 2020 the climate is a little bit of a mess, a mess your daughter is trying to clean.
I said before that climate action is an investment. But it’s not just an investment that will pay off on the financial side of things. You’re investing in the children of today. In me, in your daughter, in all of us. So make the investment, and make it big. Know what you’re doing is handing a gift to the future generations, a very simple gift that we very much deserve. The gift of a livable future.
I hope you are having a wonderful day!
Amelia Penney-Crocker