Would the Rt Hon Penguins show a little more care for their environment?
A DEBATE that has smouldered for decades has at last caught light. As the Government (roused by an opposition rapidly laying claim to green votes) announces a review of its environmental programme, it acknowledges that we are faced with a massive practical and moral problem. The facts bear this out. Cyclones lash continents, droughts turn fields to dustbowls and floods swallow cities whole. And yet, this week I listened to Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, flailing about on a Today interview. She gasped out empty promises like some stranded fish. Meanwhile, world leaders behave more like penguins. Squawking and jostling, they peep over the cliffs of their melting political standpoints, each fearing to take the first leap. Who dares commit himself to Kyoto when the economic leopard seals are lying in wait? But can culture address environmental problems any more directly? The natural world has always been fundamental to art. The very pigments that artists have used — the groun
