A fearless pledge

An email from the Guardian tells me ‘we will not stay quiet on the climate crisis.’ I am not sure I thought they would stay quiet about the climate crisis, but now they have launched a five point pledge. Interestingly, the pledge does not forbid them from taking advertisements from  e.g. airlines, nor does it banish Guardian cruise holidays, etc. In fact the pledge does not even mention advertising. Since advertising is all about trying to convince us to buy things we don’t generally need, perhaps most of it should be banned. Only a radical reduction in our consumption is going to really make a difference. So the charge of hypocrisy does rather attach itself to the Guardian’s pious pledge. I guess it’s a point acknowledged in today’s paper by George Monbiot who whilst noting the validity of the charge says it’s better to be aware of it, then to blithely press on as if nothing were happening. Nobody’s perfect, or as Mephistopheles told Dr Faustus, ‘this is hell nor am I out of it.’ But it’s still a bit remiss of the Guardian’s pledge not to mention advertising at all, even if it were simply to say we’ll take the Devil’s money to do the Lord’s work.

​Monbiot earnestly hoped to be arrested today on an Extinction Rebellion action. I hope his wish is fulfilled, but God knows we don’t need another prison diary.