Dear Seven

Well, that could not have been less magnificent. Glaring truth collided with dereliction, again, this time on a beach in Cornwall, England. But you did a wonderful job of looking as if you were having a lovely time.

Was it really that hard to forsake cringing, superficial formalities and to truly grasp and counter two dire realities? It really could not be more precarious, more simple. It was the obvious moment for you to act exponentially, to bin the false bonhomie photo-shoots and lay down a stunning marker, to meet the truth head on, to state and act unequivocally for every soul’s sake, defining how everything – no ifs, buts, delays, preferences, pecking orders – EVERYTHING humanly possible would be done, starting now.

Planet Earth is at a climatic tipping point, and we are standing at the precipice together, regardless of race, religion, creed, colour, gender, age, politics, continents and species. Yet what did you conjure, host Johnson? The sight of G7 heads of state watching a British Air Force aerial display team whizzing overhead was absurdly wrong. Did you, Prime Minister, or your cabal, think it would be a glorious way to fly the Brexit red white and blue? Sod the pollution? Puerile vanity.

Days before your meat feast on that beach all seven of you had it laid out on a plate – the International Energy Agency said climate changing CO2 emissions are set to surge by the second-biggest amount in history this year as the global economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic. That’s up by almost five per cent in 2021 to 33 billion tonnes.

David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg spelled it out for you, as have legions of scientists. Experts. Yet the pledge to raise $100 bn a year to help poor countries cut emissions is just a repeat of what was announced in 2009, a target that was not met. The re-commitment lacked depth and detail. It did in 2009 and it still does now. Never mind, eh? Have a barbecued prawn. Oooh look, here come some jets in formation again.

And then there is Covid.

We as a single species are all in the jaws of a pandemic together, 7.8 billion of us. That, blatantly, requires a code red, nobody-leaves-until–we-have-sorted-this blanket response to vaccinate every last person by yesterday. But no.

What mattered to you when not paddling about in the shallows, it seemed, was a bit of back slapping and you coming up with a nice round figure – let’s go for giving out 1 billion doses, that should do it. Now give me a hug because we have had the vaccine.

UNICEF spelled it out for you with a shocking case study. It could be three more years, if at all, that the 1.3 billion people in Africa will reach western levels of vaccination. So far just 41 million doses have been received across the continent.

So if being selfless isn’t going to swing it, how about shellfish, I mean selfish? Given the deaths, fear and ever evolving spread and mutations, we will all live in fear until none of us live in fear.

You were never going to do enough, though, were you?

That’s a given.