This is the Climate and Ecological Emergency.

Of these, climate change, or global heating, is the major threat multiplier because it is non-linear, with systems that feed back on each other and accelerate change, indirectly destroying ecosystems. Direct destruction of nature – or ecocide – is resulting in major impacts on people and other species, including the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more about the truth and the science. Humans are part of and dependent upon biological life, and Earth’s operating systems have limits. Extraction, consumption and pollution – mainly by wealthy countries and large companies – are overshooting these limits halfway through each year.

This has been an emergency for decades, because governments and industry have not shown the necessary leadership, and, so far, have not acted fast enough. We are not waiting for more efficient wind-turbines or cheaper solar-panels. What is lacking is visionary and empathetic leadership. What is needed is urgent, comprehensive action to decarbonise, support places to adapt, restore nature, and make reparations and aid for the most affected.

Fortunately, humans are capable of responding in a remarkable variety of ways to accelerate solutions and adaptations, and culture can help stir up human response as well as breaking old habits and creating new stories and visions for our world. We in the cultural sector have immense potential to be generators for transformation.

There is no room for guilt and shame, and this is no time for excuses.