In a world where political discourse is about as harmonious as a cat in a bagpipe competition, The Guardian has staged a culinary détente between two Britons who disagree on… well, just about everything climate-related. David, a ‘far left’ biologist who has studied elephants in Botswana and orangutans in Sumatra, and Don, a retired IT manager who recently declared himself ‘apolitical’ after lifelong Conservative voting, sat down for a meal at The Castle in Farnham, Surrey. They agreed on one thing: the political system is falling apart. Everything else? That’s where the soufflé of disagreement rises.
Don, 74, isn’t a climate denier - he insists - but he finds the whole net-zero-by-2050 thing a bit ambitious. “Why should the UK cripple itself when the four biggest polluters produce about 60% of CO2 emissions?” he asks, suggesting a more leisurely 2060 target. “People are worried about putting food on the table.” David, meanwhile, points out that we’ve already blown through the 1.5°C target and that incrementalism is a “false premise” leading to ecosystem collapse. “We need to stop fossil fuel extraction as soon as possible,” he says, adding that we must “act as if it is a crisis.” Because apparently, we’ve been acting like it’s a mild inconvenience.
The two found common ground on the failure of political parties to offer coherent leadership, but diverged on accountability. David, who lived through South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, worries it let “people get away with murder, literally.” Don, who read about it in the news, thinks it was “a good idea.” Both agreed media polarisation has poisoned discourse - though Don reads both the Telegraph and the Guardian, so he’s practically a diplomat. They did not exchange contact details. Perhaps they’ll meet again at the next climate summit, if we’re still around.