Paul Donovan asks is it too late to reverse climate crisis?

The floods in Europe, the hurricanes in America and the impacts seen daily in this country - yet, still the world sleeps.

America has just elected a president who is in complete denial that there is any sort of environmental crisis going on. Trump is famed for backing fossil fuel production.

Quite how this will work out, when renewables are by far the cheapest form of energy, remains to be seen.

America has made great strides forward on the environmental agenda under the Biden administration. But it was decided at the Presidential election to head back towards some sort of mythical vision of the 1950s.

Cllr Paul Donovan is concerned that it is too late to reverse damage done to the environment The impact of the climate sceptic movement has done damage across the world, not just in America - mainly in delaying action. Funded in large part by the fossil fuel industry to propagate lies and distortions it has had a big impact. 

Flying in the face of science, media across the world has fallen into line with the propagation of the many untruths.

Outright denial of the crises has largely been discredited, with a refining of tactics from the climate deniers. The new target is net zero.

So, the idea that countries need to adopt policies that will bring net zero emissions to address climate change is under attack.

These policies are crucial to human survival on the earth, yet climate deniers are redefining the policy as some sort of lifestyle choice. This then becomes net zero policies are unaffordable. Or yes, we can move in that direction when there is growth in the economy.

This is an insidious development of climate denial. It is easily accepted by those caught up in short-term, bottom-line economic thinking. 

Yet this is as nonsensical as climate denial. The devastation is all around us. There is no time to delay. Nature can be brutal and turn. It will not wait till humans decide they can "afford" to behave less destructively.

We are already paying the price of inaction. Back in 2006, Sir Nicholas Stern warned in a report for the British Government that not acting on climate would be more costly in the long term. And so it has proved. 

There seems every chance that the world has gone past the tipping point of climate and biodiversity destruction. We may simply be dealing with the effects, not the causes.

Net zero policies must be the norm across the world.

The destruction of the environment is the crisis of our time. We cannot just sit and hope a magic solution can be found and everything will be alright.

• Paul Donovan is Labour councillor for Wanstead Village ward, Redbridge Council and a blogger (paulfdonovan.blogspot.com).