‘Many of us now realise we face the collapse of our life support systems'

George Monbiot is an iconic environmental writer, conservationist, campaigner, and journalist. Speaking to Srijana Mitra Das at Times Evoke, Monbiot discussed the silver linings to the current pandemic — including the opportunities emerging to ‘reset’ our environmental behaviour:

- George Monbiot

Does the pandemic offer us lessons in terms of the environment?

Yes, one of the lessons it offers us is that people can change their lives when they must do so. So often, we have been told that people would never accept the changes required to prevent climate breakdown. But the changes we need to make in order to alter environmental outcomes are actually much less severe than the changes we’re making now to prevent the pandemic from spreading. I think this shows that when we are called upon to act for the greater good, the great majority of people are prepared to do that, even if that means bearing a personal cost.

What we as environmental campaigners are calling for is people to carry a much smaller cost — we are not asking people to stay at home or not meet other people. We’re asking them to make much smaller changes, alongside structural changes and changes in technology which will greatly reduce our environmental impacts.

Have you seen transformations occurring in people’s thinking about the environment at this time?