Here’s an interview with Matthew Todd, who is tireless on Twitter about the size, scale, and imminence of the climate crisis. Many thanks to him for taking the time to answer AOY’s questions. If YOU want to answer the same questions, please do so and DM them across… (One point of this project is to help expand the discussion…)
1) Who are you? When did you first hear about climate change (or “global warming”, or if you are really decrepit, “the greenhouse effect”)? What do you “do”?
My name is Matthew Todd. I am a journalist and author. I worked for Attitude, the U.K.’s best selling gay magazine, for 20 years from 1996, and was editor from 2008 to 2016. I’m the author of two books; Straight Jacket, about LGBTQ mental health, and Pride, about the LGBTQ equality movement.
I first heard about climate change when I was at school. I remember a geography teacher telling us about it; that the planet was heating up, that the ice caps would melt, that the whole of humanity could be in really big trouble. But he said of course we’ve got some decades to fix it and governments will fix it. Everyone that really scared but we all kind of believed and hoped that governments would do something about it. Obviously they haven’t. They are in total denial.
2) Has any particular post on “All Our Yesterdays” resonated with you? If so, which one(s) and why? [also, if there’s stuff you DON’T like about AOY, please do say]
No, I’ve not see anything that’s annoyed me. I think anyone trying to draw attention to the ecological and planetary crisis that we are in is a positive and I applaud everyone who does it.
3) What topics would you like to see AOY covering that it hasn’t yet?
I’d like to see more about the funded denial campaigns from the oil and energy companies to cast doubt on climate change. It’s been the number one reason why people haven’t woken up to the severity of the threat. I don’t think most people realise that oil companies have funding the handful of scientists who don’t agree with Climate Change Science and are funding the massive amount of online disinformation about the issue.
4) What have “we” – people in the “climate movement,” broadly defined – done “wrong” over the last 30 plus years? What have we not done well enough, what have we not done at all, what should we not do/not have done?
I think we should’ve just been far more radical and been out on the streets from the very beginning. I think scientists should have called out the oil company campaign of disinformation more and I think they should’ve been locking themselves to the doors of media organisations who are failing to tell the public the full truth about the reality of the crisis we face. They should do that now. I don’t mean to be critical scientists because they shouldn’t have to do that, but unfortunately the media is completely broken and I think the only way people will ever wake up is when the science is on the front pages of newspapers and people are showing emotion about it.
Celebrities have completely failed us by not raising the alarm. The whole of our societal structures, from politics to media, has completely failed. The focus on individual action has been an absolute disaster as well. Of course the concept of carbon footprint was created by BP to shift blame away from companies like themselves onto the individual. Unfortunately, people think that all they need to do is turn their mobile phone charger off and everything is going to be okay, when in fact we’re not going to survive without massive systemic global change.
5) Pivotting from that cheerfulness, tell us about any projects you are working on and how people can get involved (chance to plug your books, podcasts, campaigns).
I’m working on various things about like a one-man show and new book and a couple of plays but I have to be honest; I find it really hard to work during this time knowing calamity is heading straight towards us. The only thing that can stop it is if hundreds of millions of people rise up and demand change.
6) Anything else you’d like to say?
Get on the streets.