Convenience Big Store: Here’s how not to save the planet

1 November, 2021

In the headlines

"Flop26" has got off to a terrible start, says Alex Wickham in Politico. "Despite the huge stakes on climate change, the UK and the EU remain mired in political infighting on Brexit." To make matters worse, the train line from London was down, and with bin collectors in Glasgow on strike, the city is infested with enormous rats. Donald Trump is now the favourite to win the 2024 US presidential election. In August, Paddy Power gave Trump the third best odds to win. Now it has him in pole position. Ryanair plans to cut fares this winter to bolster demand. The budget airline is expecting to make a loss of up to £170m this year.

Comment of the day

An open-pit coalmine in China. Wang Zheng/VCG/Getty Images

Here's how not to save the planet

The UK has cut greenhouse gas emissions by a remarkable-sounding 40% since 1990, says Juliet Samuel in The Daily Telegraph. But in truth this is just "dodgy accounting". Our emissions have fallen mainly because we have "stopped manufacturing so much stuff here". Instead we let other countries do the manufacturing – and emitting – and import goods from them. Emissions from British clothes makers are down 90% over three decades, for example, but they've "nearly quadrupled" at the Chinese factories that now make all our clothes. Similarly, digging coal is all but verboten in Britain, even though we need it for steelmaking. So our steel manufacturers have to import coal – the carbon emissions of which are "up to seven times more than if we used our own".

If Britain really wants to be a climate leader, it should introduce a carbon tariff. This idea – taxing imports based on the energy mix in their country of origin – has been floating around for a while. The European Commission wants one, Japan and Canada have discussed it, and President Biden has shown interest. The levy would mean the "green charges we impose on ourselves" apply to our trading partners as well. That would provide a huge incentive for other countries to lower their emissions. It's a win-win. With our "carbon-shifting scam", Britain has "become the poster child for how not to 'save' the planet". Time to end this failed approach and try something that might actually work.

An Afghan family who have put one of their children up for sale. Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Talk to the Taliban or millions will starve

Even before the Taliban took over in August, Afghanistan was in a bad way, says Christina Lamb in The Sunday Times. People burnt cowpats for heat, fetched water from wells and sent children to schools with no walls. More than 75% of the country's budget came from aid. But with the Taliban now in power, that aid has dried up – and Afghanistan "has been pushed further toward the abyss". The UN says only 5% of Afghans have enough to eat, while 50% face "extreme hunger". Families in Kabul are selling kettles and mattresses just to put food on the table. Shockingly, some are so desperate that they are selling their children. Last week the BBC reported that a couple in Herat had given away their baby girl for $500.

The West is keen not to make too much of this: its leaders "want to forget the humiliation of losing to the Taliban". The US has stumped up just $144m of aid since August – "a start but nowhere near enough". Our leaders need to get over their wounded pride and accept that the Taliban are now in charge. Because "if the international community don't engage, millions will die of hunger as we watch".

Tomorrow's world

A driverless flying taxi has been unveiled at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport. By 2024, passengers should be able to zip through the air from the terminals to the city centre, without "traffic lights or cats running across the road", said the airport's CEO, Marco Troncone. The two-passenger flying taxi has a top speed of 60mph and the 15-minute journey will cost about €150.

Gone viral

Celebrities took advantage of Halloween to hit the town in disguise. Harry Styles dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz at a gig in New York. Ariana Grande's make-up team styled her as "Miss Creature from the Black Lagoon". Singer Lizzo dressed as Baby Yoda to attend a Spotify party in West Hollywood. Katy Perry and her husband, Orlando Bloom, went for a contemporary theme: she was a vaccine and he was a doctor. "I vaxxed a girl and I liked it," Bloom joked on Instagram.

Quirks of history

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous speeches in American history, says Julia Langdon in The Times. It helped end the Civil War and bring about the abolition of slavery – not bad for something only 272 words long. But the president kept it short for good reason: he had a case of incipient smallpox. "As soon as he had spoken, he got straight back on the train to Washington and took to his bed." Lincoln recovered, but his valet wasn't so lucky. "He caught the pox and died."

Snapshot

Life

Our offices are a stone's throw from Rada, which makes for good eavesdropping, says The Oldie's art editor. Recently I heard two young thespians reflecting on their arduous morning. "How's it been for you?" one asked. "Well," said the other, "I've been lying on the floor for four hours pretending to be a fried egg." "You're lucky," replied the friend. "Last year we were naked, trying to be sugar lumps."

Snapshot answer

It's Bill Gates, who spent his 66th birthday on a superyacht in Bodrum, Turkey. The Microsoft founder is thought to have spent €1.8m hiring the 350ft vessel for a week, and he invited 50 people to celebrate with him – including Amazon supremo Jeff Bezos. Festivities reportedly started on board before the guests travelled to a restaurant by helicopter for sushi and champagne. Twitter users weren't impressed by the carbon impact of all this yachting and helicoptering – Gates's latest book is called How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.