Summary for Policy Makers, really?

A long, long time ago, I had a job that included, as one of its responsibilities, drafting the proverbial “one pager for the governor.” If the memo exceeded a single page, the governor wouldn’t read it because he was a busy man and his staff wouldn’t forward the memo to him. So, if something couldn’t be summarized in one page, there was not much point in crafting it in the first place. Today’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, Summary for Policymakers is 42 pages long. [The full report approaches 4,000 pages.]

Let me be quite blunt about this, having skimmed the "summary report" earlier today, no way in hell is any policy maker ever likely to read that report, plus, the way it’s crafted, preparing a one page summary would be a monumental challenge. Please keep in mind I’m not disagreeing with the substance of the report, only with the way it’s presented. Getting from the report to the core of the upcoming COP 26 conference is going to be much more challenging than would be optimum.

controlled, prescribed burn, or wildfire? our choice

Photo by J. Harrington

Fortunately, there are writers who can frame issues in a way that even policy makers find hard to avoid. Here’s a sample:

I’ve never seen a perfect world. I never will. But, I know that a world warmed by 2 degrees Celsius is far preferable to one warmed by 3 degrees, or 6. And that I’m willing to fight for it, with everything I have, because it is everything I have. I don’t need a guarantee of success before I risk everything to save the things, the people, the places that I love. Before I try to save myself.

Do yourself, and the rest of US, a favor by reading the whole essay Home is Always Worth It. Then get in touch with your favorite policy maker and ask why they’re not doing enough to salvage the only home we have or will ever have.

Opening the Hands between Here and Here

Jane Hirshfield - 1953-

On the dark road, only the weight of the rope.
Yet the horse is there.

—2006

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