The Apocalypse Tapestry and Climate Change

The Apocalypse Tapestry

We were driving through France a few years ago and stumbled across an astonishing tapestry in Angers, east of Nantes. It's a huge late 14th century depiction of the Apocalypse, woven in the Hundred Years War and as the Black Death ripped through the French countryside. The tapestry is as disturbing as it is amazing. Gangs of soldiers roam across a weirdly dessicated empty landscape, among the angels and monsters of the Book of Revelation. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse are hanging out, of course, having a good time (apart from Death, who looks pretty out of it), and the monsters are as weird as they are unsettling. Frankly, it knocks the Bayeaux tapestry into a cocked hat. Look it up or - better - go and see it.

We were back in Brittany last week and it was of course impossible not to think of it. 

There is, however, a significant difference between the way the world must have seemed in the late 1300s and the way it is now. Life in Angers must have felt bleak and disordered, driven by a kind of cruel and chaotic incomprehensible randomness. 

With the exception of a diminishing number of crackpot culture warriors, we know damn well what's happening now, and we have a reasonable idea of how things will play out. Does that put us in a better place psychologically? Yes, I think it does. We need to understand, to give us a sense of agency.

The Big Society

My holiday reading was a fascinating new book on the Second World War, by Jonathan Fennell. He analyses the way that different societies and their soldiers reacted to the circumstances in which they found themselves during the wars between 1931 and 1949. Bear with me on this.

Why did the French Army collapse so spectacularly in 1939-1940, for example, after the tremendous sacrifices of the First World War? This seems only very partially explicable in terms of strategy and equipment. Something happened which military historians can't capture. Society seemed to be fracturing after the endless governments and internal political wars between left and right in France in the 1930s. There wasn't the social cohesiveness needed to repel a determined invader, or the confidence in government or State. What a contrast with the Finns, for example, in their existential struggle with the Soviet Union.   

The tapestry was commissioned by Louis, Duke of Anjou, and you can see it as part of his efforts to rebuild that kind of social cohesion. Its message is actually one of hope and confidence in a better future. 

Understanding, Consensus and Action

Understanding what is happening and creating a national consensus to fight it are the first things we need to do. We will not be able to action specifics until we do. I'm absolutely clear about this from my own experience in fighting biodiversity loss. It's exactly why Extinction Rebellion failed.

It's astonishing that even now there is no universal agreement on what is happening. Less astonishing in the U.S., sure, but here? How can some politicians and their creatures in the Press be so wrong headed? Are they afraid? Grifters? Fighting some weird culture war? 

An Idea Made Flesh

Over the last twenty odd years it has struck me as odd that people don't seem to see extreme man made climate change in its historical context. This isn't like England winning the World Cup. Or a solar eclipse. It's not a once in a lifetime thing. It's not even an event experienced by anyone on my family tree.* We're in Late Bronze Age Collapse territory.

Even those who bought into the idea early have all too often only done that. Like the idea that the Nazis might bomb London or commit genocide. I guess we've gone through something similar to the Phoney War in 1939. And now we don't just understand what the enemy is, we've started to see it up close. Even so, the majority of people's attitudes and behaviours are only just changing. We need to get onto a war footing on this as soon as possible. 

A Sense of Place

The new government has so far had remarkably little to say about the climate crisis. I'm hopeful that its emphasis on devolved powers will help, however. Localism and a sense of belonging are powerful weapons in the environmentalist's armoury. Watching change around us, happening to a familiar landscape, sends a strong and urgent message.

Seeing the resilience of nature can be comforting too, as it must have been to those 14th century peasants in Angers. Whatever might be happening, some of its familiar rhythms persist. 

*A bizarre and complicated undertaking going back to the 10th Century (possibly!) and including over 3000 people.