Winston Churchill was “lucky” enough to live during a period of history when the enemies of freedom, justice, peace, and stability were recognizable villains with armies and mustaches.The existential threat posed by climate change is far more abstract. It makes for a fight that’s tough to rally people around.
Churchill isn’t with us today to weigh in on the dangers, upheaval—economic, cultural, geo-political, and otherwise—and costs to human life, health, and well-being posed by climate change, but what if he were? How would he talk about it? In the face of Nazi aggression, “Britain became doggedly focused and swung behind a campaign virtually without parallel.” The United States soon followed suit. How would Britain’s wartime prime minister mobilize the public around climate solutions?
Tony Juniper—campaigner and sustainability advisor and author of What Has Nature Ever Done For Us?—asks just those questions in the latest Yes! Magazine, pulling quotes from Churchill that readily apply to the climate fight we face today. It sounds a little old-fashioned, but it works (with a few minor adjustments). It’s powerful!
It’s the kind of bold leadership we could use right about now.
