The BBC really is ramping up the pressure on climate change. Having made my way back to the episcopal palace late yesterday afternoon I collapsed in a corner to catch up on my reading. Meanwhile, on the TV in the corner was Simon Reeve's Caribbean, a travelogue show which this week featured visits to Venezuela and Colombia.
I wasn't paying any attention until, towards the end, I was forced to sit up by the (perhaps inevitable) introduction of the climate debate. This centred upon Reeve's visit to the Sierra Nevada mountains of Columbia and an Amerindian tribe called the Kogi. You got a hint of what was coming when the first Kogi interviewed told the camera that her people did not damage the Earth (from 51:00). But it really kicked off from 54:30 when the same interviewee asked:
How can [you] expect us to live when you come from the other side of the world and destroy mother Earth so that multinational companies profit? ...river levels have fallen, the rains don't come when they should, crop seasons are changing. Only when this stops can life carry on as normal.
Cue Reeve giving us a little lecture on the perils of climate change, and how shocking it was to hear about the "profound change" that the Kogi were allegedly experiencing. This was apparently something Reeve was hearing "more and more about" on his travels around the world.
To round things off, Reeve took a group of the Kogi down the mountain to the seaside, where they stared meaningfully at a power station. Reeve asked them what they thought:
Before this was built, everything was normal. Building this here has harmed the Earth. It could kill everything here....Mother Earth is in pain.
You can guess the rest. So, if Reeve gets his way it's a prehistoric lifestyle and early deaths from woodsmoke inhalation for the Kogi and perhaps a lot of other people too. But lots of picturesque destitution for him to coo over.
And if anyone should think that Reeve actually believed any of the stuff he was spouting to camera, this Twitter exchange should clarify things:
Every Sunday @simon_reeve makes me want to quit my job on Monday and travel the world #travel
— Dan Goodrich (@DanGoodrich1) March 29, 2015
@DanGoodrich1 Do it Dan. Life is so short.
— Simon Reeve (@simon_reeve) March 29, 2015