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It was a potent message delivered with the kind of gravitas that an authority such as Tickell commands. He has had a rich and varied career in the diplomatic service, as the UK’s ambassador to Mexico and the UN; and also as a respected policymaker on environmental issues, helping bring climate change to the world’s attention in the 80s, at a time when it was still considered a crackpot idea.
Such an incredible CV is all the more remarkable when you consider that Tickell graduated university with a degree in modern history.
Such an incredible CV is all the more remarkable when you consider that Tickell graduated university with a degree in modern history. The Yorker asked Sir Crispin why he made the switch from modern history to diplomacy:
“I have always been interested in the big issues of the time, be it history, geology, diplomacy or climate change. I maintain my interest in history, although my interest now extends to Palaeohistory: the study of ancient civilisations and understanding why they may have eventually collapsed.”
Learning such lessons from the past have certainly coloured Tickell’s bleak opinions on our future, perhaps rightly so. With climate change and population pressure beginning to kick in, the world’s population seem apathetic at best. Why are people dragging their feet in the face of such obvious dangers ahead? Tickell believes the problem is one of perception:
“We all suffer from a disease know as conceptual sclerosis. Thinking differently, and challenging conventional wisdom, is very hard to do.”
Assuming people can overcome their lethargy, a common problem with climate change and other environmental issues is that often the public don’t know what to do to help. Conflicting advice from councils, academics, and Government can often confuse more than it clears up. What are the main ways that students can act to help the environment? And do we matter, in the grand scheme of things?
“Students, as individuals, have got to do a bit more. In terms of attitudes, students have the appropriate flexibility of mind to appreciate wider issues and act on them, something which an older audience may lack!”
For a man of 77 years, Tickell certainly doesn’t sound like a grumpy old man. Clearly his interest in the key issues of the time is what keeps him young. His job is also seemingly getting easier: with extreme events such as the floods in York, people are beginning to see that observed shifts in weather and climate are part of a wider pattern. We ask if he finds it easy to convince the world that environmental plight is happening:
“The thing with climate change is that it does have an impact on our daily lives. Arguments for conservation of the world’s biological diversity, on the other hand, are very difficult to get across, as they are largely out of sight.”
Tickell visited the University to speak at an event organised by the New Generation Society (NGS). Speaking to students on some of the key issues facing mankind over the coming century, Tickell outlined a future world in which society will be faced with a multitude of challenges to overcome, touching on nuclear power, the energy mix, nanotechnology, and of course climate change.
Tickell appears to relish the challenge of getting such a message across. In his company, you soon realise that he rarely fails to convince. He wraps up the lecture with his thoughts on what the future in 2100 might look like:
“Hopefully humans will be operating a truly ethical system of values, and will be showing far more respect for the natural world.”
With many of the major decisions on how this century will turn out yet to be made, only time will tell if he is right.
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