McEwan: Pessimism 'Bigger Problem' Than Climate Change
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- Ian McEwan told the Hay festival that pessimism is "probably a bigger problem than climate change" and framed optimism as a "moral duty" and "exercise in rationality," citing the possibility that "there could be a revolution happening and we don't even know about it."
- London temperatures reached 34.8C on the day of the panel, breaking a May record set in 1922, and McEwan pointed to 2020 as a "historical moment" when UK renewables-generated electricity outpaced that from gas and coal plants.
- Minette Batters, former NFU president and author of a government farming profitability review, said farmers "do not know what is coming next" after producing just 50% of normal hay and 50% of normal silage crops last year — the worst in her 26 years of farming.
- Batters' review found that only 7% of farmers in England fully understand Defra's vision for farming, a gap she described as farming having "almost become a game of Russian roulette," and she criticised Andy Burnham's land value tax proposal near Manchester.
- McEwan said there would be a "huge gain in cutting our losses" on HS2 by redirecting money to local services, and warned that Britain's 2,000-year-old footpath network is "under a pressure" from "semi-corrupt large landowners" who can get paths closed by taking council leaders "out to dinner."
- McEwan proposed self-interest as a climate lever: saving "£150 off your annual bill by having a few panels on your balcony" is "a nudge" toward "the next step will feel slightly virtuous."
Why it matters: The panel landed on the same day the UK broke a 103-year-old May temperature record, sharpening the contrast between McEwan's appeal for optimism and Batters' frontline account of farming losses (50% of normal hay and silage last year) compounded by a Defra communication gap that only 7% of English farmers say they understand — a credibility problem for the government's agricultural transition plan.
