<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/26/counting-down-to-zero-the-final-warning-from-a-climate-diplomat>
"On 15 March 2022, I was on a video call with a dear friend when I experienced
a twitching on the left-hand side of my face and a slurring of my speech. My
wife, Fiona, took me to hospital because we both thought I was having a stroke,
and I spent the journey in the car adjusting to my probable death.
Interestingly, I did not feel fear or anger; only sadness and disappointment
that it was all going to end sooner than I had expected. I survived: but six
days later, we learned that the cause of my condition was a particularly
aggressive form of brain tumour called a glioblastoma.
Since then I have read a number of accounts written by cancer sufferers. Many
of them start with an uncertain diagnosis, often with a reasonable percentage
chance of survival. But unlike these accounts it was absolutely clear that the
tumour would kill me: there was no cure and I was given a median life
expectancy of 15 to 18 months. Of course, I hoped to do better than the median,
but the medical team said that clinging to that possibility would probably be a
mistake because it would distract me from enjoying the time I had left. My
immediate reaction was genuinely to recognise that in some respects I was
lucky. Some people drop dead with no warning, whereas I would perhaps have a
year to come to terms with and make sense of my life. This enabled me from the
beginning to take a positive approach to my situation and determined me to make
the most of the little time I had.
My first thought was to write an autobiography which would be mainly for me and
my family and friends and would help me think through some of my personal
idiosyncrasies. But then I realised that I had devoted much of my life to
tackling climate breakdown and had been entrusted with pivotal roles in the UK
and European Union, advising ministers and leading negotiations. I was for many
years at the centre of the UN negotiations on climate, for 13 years in overall
charge of the UK effort and for six of these years also as lead negotiator for
the EU. So perhaps one useful thing I could do would be to share my knowledge
about what I had seen and experienced and my observations about the future
challenge.
The longer I have worked on the climate crisis, the more worried I have become.
As I approach my own death, I realise how insignificant I am as one individual,
and how devastating climate breakdown will be for millions if not billions of
people, many of whom are not even born yet. To state the bleeding obvious, this
puts the slightly earlier than expected death of one individual in some
perspective."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
