With the world cup well underway, it is impossible to ignore the messed-up priorities of our world, in which the media’s obsession with popularism allows the game of football to take centre stage over human survival.
World leaders at COP27 took an extra day to reach any meaningful conclusion. We can applaud the signing of the agreement on Loss and Damage, in which the wealthier nations will make some financial reparation to those countries suffering most from the realities of climate change. This is poor compensation for the failure yet again to reduce the suicidal rate at which fossil fuel extraction continues to grow.
But true justice for the climate must bring the climate emergency alongside all those debates about human rights stimulated by both green- and sport-washing round the world, as so obviously highlighted by Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup.
One important measure of global justice is “Overshoot Day”. This is defined as the day in the year, when the world has used up its sustainable allocation of resources for that year. This year it was July 28th. From July 29th onwards, we have been “borrowing” energy, water, food, raw materials from next years’ allocation. Each year, earth overshoot day falls a little earlier, as we denude the world just a little bit more.
Each country has its own overshoot day. That is the day on which the world’s fair resources would be used, if everyone in the world were to consume them at the same rate as that country. The variation between countries makes for interesting study of world inequity. The UK overshoot day was May 19th this year, one of the better European countries. With their huge populations and corresponding carbon footprint, China and India are often cited as excuses for delaying action to curb our impact on the climate, but on the overshoot scale, China has a smaller impact, with an overshoot day of 2nd June, and India does not overshoot at all – per capita, each year they use less than their fair allocation. As you might expect, USA is somewhat greedy, coming in at March 13th.
I’m sure you have at least two questions – your curious self wants to know who is worst, and your responsible self wants to know how to find the hope and action required to reverse the trend. The answer to the first is clear, but guess what! It is Qatar. They come in at a staggering February 10th. Not only is the World Cup built on the back of exploitation and sport-washing, it has also been built at huge injustice to the environment. The second might seem harder to answer, though the answer is actually simple if we acknowledge and overturn our addiction to consumerism. Like all addictions, it is the reality of withdrawal that is hard.
A prayer.
May we recognise that there is no climate justice without economic and social justice, and may we continue to commit ourselves to learn, speak, act and bring hope for a just and sustainable world. Amen
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