Good riddance to 2024. As years go it has proved one of the bleakest since the end of the Second World War. At times watching the evening news has been like watching a horror movie. It was best done from behind the sofa.
War crimes
The year began with Benjamin Netanyahu responding to a cruel attack on Israeli citizens by launching an even more horrible attack of his own on an entire people. Any hope that the deaths might end quickly has gone. Bombing of hospitals, carpet shelling of residential districts, casual disregard for the lives of prisoners and even hostages trying to surrender and the use of hunger and homelessness as a political weapon, have become routinised.
All are war crimes. Gaza has been flattened, Lebanon invaded, Syria invaded and every time a peace deal has seemed close and hopeful, those hopes have been dashed by another escalation.
As the full scale of that massacre unfolded, the death and the destruction in Ukraine also mounted. Cowering in a foxhole in horrible conditions waiting to see whether the latest drone strike would end their life or their mobility, has been the daily routine for hundreds of thousands of young people. Conditions have been little different to the horrors of trench warfare in the First World War. The war has become a brutal fight to exhaustion between a determined dictator with complete control over the resources of a huge nation, and Western countries who have been better at promising support than supplying enough weapons to enable the Ukrainians to succeed.
As the year ends Vladimir Putin’s war machine is making grindingly slow and painful advances, while talk is increasing that the Ukrainians will be forced to sue for peace and accept the reality that he has captured large amounts of territory. Such talk could easily result in a complete collapse of Ukrainian people’s ability to resist. Instead of being discouraged by the loss of life Putin has extended his external interference into Georgia, with little certainty that the giant protests there are going to succeed in removing his puppet government.
Climate crisis deepens
2024 was also the year in which the climate emergency got a lot worse, while lobbyists and politicians got a lot better at dragging their feet. Surface temperatures across the whole planet broke through the ceiling of 1.5 degrees of warming since the start of the industrial revolution. This was the critical level that scientists thought might be safe – 26 years early.
It was also the year when the hosts of the main conference on restraining the use of fossil fuels, welcomed delegates with the message that fossil fuels were a gift from God. And if that wasn’t depressing enough, then the figures on global wildlife destruction and removal of natural forest cover, and the record production of plastic, should have given all of us a deep attack of environmental anxiety.
Instead, the reaction against doing anything has gained strength. It has become commonplace to hear that the problems aren’t manmade, that it costs too much to take action, and that we in Britain can do little. All of which are completely incorrect views that drive us further down the road to major disaster. The image by which the year may well prove to be remembered is of cars floating down the streets of Valencia while their occupants call out helplessly as they head to their deaths.
Danger posed by Trump
Much of the resistance to taking action on climate change can be traced to the world’s single most important denier of reality: Donald Trump. His election must count as the single most worrying development of the year.
The problems he will cause have been evident even before he takes office. Already he has tried to put a person in charge of justice who had credible links to sex traffickers; a defence secretary who drinks so much he can’t be trusted to keep secrets; and someone in charge of healthcare who thinks most vaccines are a conspiracy to undermine the health of the nation.
Meanwhile, women’s rights are already coming under sustained attack. And the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has control over the world’s largest exchange of information and is actively supporting far-right groups like the German AfD and promising to fund Reform UK Ltd.
Resist oppression and demand change
When men of evil intent become rich and powerful, the only sensible response is to resist with determination. 2025 could mark a turning point, if enough people take the right actions to fight against the oligarchs and their warped vision of the future wherever they raise their heads.
There are a lot of Israelis who don’t like Netanyahu’s government. The only route to genuine security for Israel is for them to succeed in getting rid of him and for a new government to get serious about negotiating a secure long-term peace agreement with their neighbours that respects the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace and freedom, secure in their lives and property.
There are some very brave Russians who have sacrificed their lives and their freedom to rid their country of rulers who have stripped its wealth in order to buy gold toilet seats for their string of dachas.
We have seen in Syria how fragile the support really is for a regime that survives on the basis of intimidation, and how quickly the edifice of sand can collapse. Other unpleasant regimes could fall just as quickly. Top of my list of hopes for this would be the women-hating regime in Iran, which is becoming increasingly desperate and insecure.
Mobilising truth and action for a better future
There’s also no reason why things couldn’t turn positive when it comes to the environment. The reality of the damage has become so evident that powerful economic, social and political forces are strongly behind action. They include the leader of the United Nations. It ought to be possible to ban fossil fuel lobbyists from attending the next COP conference, take environmental conferences out of the hands of hosts like the Saudis, and turn them into serious engines for change.
All the technology we need to achieve a transformation in our approach to the environment is already in existence. Millions of ordinary citizens realise that there is a serious problem and want action. There may still be time to fend off the worst of the coming disasters – provided we mobilise forces of good will and act in time.
Powerful forces are working hard to prevent constructive change. They have money, they have the US presidency, and they have ownership of the most widely used tools of communication. But the rest of us have powerful weapons of our own. The truth doesn’t go away just because Trump doesn’t like it.
Reality will keep reminding people that the environment really is deteriorating at a dangerous speed. You can’t fool all the people all of the time. Ultimately, rulers need consent and when it is goes change comes fast. This needs to be the year when good people stand up for the things they believe in and articulate their vision of how very different things could be.
We need to start making decisions which help to provide healthy and happy lives for the majority, not power and riches for the few. If we can make this the year when the lies and the power of the oligarchs begins to be seriously undermined, then we might all have a much happier new year.
