Climate change is a slow-moving disaster and one that no truly serious person can continue to ignore. Photograph: Getty Images
Stern had no qualms about naming the biggest obstacles to climate progress. “The main one is the fossil fuel industry,” he said, explaining that the “huge clout” of state-owned and private companies could influence political leaders.Letters to planet Earth: ‘I love your sense of humour.
His words struck home because it was the latest complaint I have heard this year about the “adults in the room” or “very serious people” who bog down climate action. The grown-ups holding back efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions are not necessarily the same people but share the same aversion to radically unorthodox ideas.
Is it fair to lay all the blame on serious grown-ups in successive governments and boardrooms who have spent years failing to do enough to fix the problem? Probably not