Glasgow’s Eco Au Go-Go
Pity the poor environmental activist who, after years of dutiful earnestness and scolding, finally scores an invitation to the biggest eco-shindig of them all.
Our lucky activist is bound for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, otherwise known as the Conference of the Parties, or COP26. Hooray!
Except this year’s COPfest isn’t in sunny Madrid, Spain (COP25), exotic Katowice, Poland (COP24), cultured Bonn, Germany (COP23) or hippie-friendly Marrakech, Morocco (COP22).
Nor will it be held in beautiful Paris (COP21) where Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Kelly O’Shanassy memorably feasted on a dish she described as “duck le orange”, which sounds like something you might order in the NSW Central Tablelands.
No, this year’s big climate celebration will be hosted by Glasgow, Scotland, just a few weeks prior to the onset of winter.
Glasgow isn’t the most attractive destination at the best of times. Presently, you’d quickly choose a Victorian-style lockdown over a visit to Scotland’s largest city.
The place, as Stephen Daisley writes in the Spectator, is “a city in crisis where streets are overflowing with rubbish”.
And soon, to repeat Daisley’s point, with international climate delegates.
(Please continue reading Monday's column.)
UPDATE. Scotland has other problems besides rats, rubbish and climate delegates:
The National Theatre of Scotland has banned the word “spooky” over its “racial connotations” despite nobody complaining and despite there being no record of it ever being used as a racial slur in the United Kingdom …
“A source at the Scottish theatre told the Daily Record that no one has complained about the term “spooky” but they wereconcerned the word could become problematic in the future,” reports RT.
So based on the prospect that somebody, somewhere, might be offended in the future by a completely non-controversial word, it has to be banned.
Readers are invited to nominate other words they believe could one day offend someone, and to demand that word be erased.
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