We Don’t Mean to Mess Things Up
12th January 2008


My favourite music of 2007 was a low-key album called Surprise by Paul Simon (of Simon and Garfunkel fame). It is as unpredictable as its title suggests. Along with the usual quirky love songs there are comments on some of the darker themes of life in George Bush’s America, with an acid reference to “lunatics and liars.”

The album is rich with layers of instrumentation, but it is the lyrics that make the strongest impression. Simon is back at his poetic best, capturing the imagination with lines that seem just pretty at first but more unsettling on reflection: “we brought a brand new baby back from Bangladesh, thought we’d name her Emily, she’s beautiful…”

Paul Simon is not an evangelist. His songs have probably never been sung on protest marches or picket lines. But he has a way of getting under the skin. If there is a message in Surprise it is in these words, uttered in a monotone, almost sotto voce: “we don’t mean to mess things up, but mess them up we do.”

I find these words constantly in my mind as I enjoy the holiday luxury of reading newspapers and listening to the radio. Most stories boil down to Paul Simon’s message, a parade of accidents and mistakes, of outcomes totally at odds with intentions. It is as true of small stories (Ashburton art gallery’s stolen flag) as big ones (Pakistan’s political meltdown).

If the newsmakers are to be believed our ability to mess things up is no longer confined to human affairs. Events that were previously explained as acts of nature or God are now cast as consequences of our actions. Floods, droughts, hurricanes, bush fires and pestilence are sheeted back to global warming caused by our plundering of the planet’s resources.

Global warming was the Big Story of 2007 and will continue to be for a while yet. It is treated with the same breathless excitement by journalists and editors as the Cold War was when I was a child, and for the same reason – global warming has the potential to wipe us out. We watch with dismay as carbon emissions soar, as our leaders squabble over who will take the first meaningful steps towards reduction, as science falls further behind in the race to prevent a catastrophe.

I notice over the past year or so that the global warming story has become increasingly fatalistic. Even if we reduce our carbon emissions to zero we will not prevent disastrous effects from all that has gone before. The best we can do is strive to minimise the damage.

How do you respond to this stuff? I get the impression the scale of the problem frightens most of us to the point where we stand frozen in the headlights of oncoming disaster. How can I make any difference when China burns millions of tons of coal a day? Why should I install an energy saving light bulb in my kitchen when New Zealand’s cows and sheep produce 40 million tons of carbon-loaded methane each year? Why bother?

In the spirit of our times the people who appear most optimistic are often those who see a profit in global warming. Leaving aside the delicate issue of all those burping cows New Zealand continues to trade on a “clean, green” image.

This sometimes becomes ludicrous. Last week I stayed at a motor camp in the Catlins that promoted itself as “eco-friendly.” I was told that the camp owners had “retired” two sheep farms, replacing grass with trees whose carbon-soaking abilities they claimed will match the emissions of the campervans they attract to the park. Their brochure touted a “solar clothes drier” and “energy-saving” facilities. In reality the solar drier was a clothesline, energy-saving was mainly signs encouraging campers to take short showers while simple measures like separating and recycling rubbish had been overlooked.

Is a bogus response to global warming better than no response at all? If we pretend to be doing something about it will our actions eventually lead to some meaningful change in behaviour? Is any response better than despair?

Vicki Buck, former mayor of Christchurch and recently listed as a global “eco-warrior,” possesses a well-modulated view of global warming. Despite her belief that we are probably too late to stop it she continues to act from natural optimism and a sense of hope.

We can all do the same: take some small steps and pursue them with hope. We may fail to avert disaster but if we do something we will at least be able to answer the criticisms of our grand children.

If we do nothing we’ll earn Paul Simon’s words as our epitaph:
“We don’t mean to mess things up
But mess them up we do
And then it’s
‘Oh, I’m sorry…’”