Suppose you had a choice between saving the planet, but in a not too healthy condition morally and politically, and not saving it. Which would you go for? You will say that you need to know just how bad the planet's condition is morally and politically before you can answer the question. If it's just one vast death camp... etc. OK, so let's see.
It may just be a throwaway remark in concluding the piece, but Paul Chatterton argues:
Protest is not about saving the planet. It's about saving democracy. To resonate with people it has to use cherished values like equality, freedom, and be about a better deal for the poorest here in the UK and abroad. It's about getting the growth obsessed market, the drudgery of the wage, bloated governments and careerist politicians off our backs. It's about challenging nasty right-wing populism. Otherwise what exactly are we saving the planet for?
Even if it is only meant as a throwaway, the editors at Red Pepper have chosen to give the sentiment prominence in the way they present Chatterton's article:
A global climate change deal for the planet at Copenhagen needs to be about equality and freedom. Otherwise it's not a planet worth saving, says Paul Chatterton.
So let's take this as if it were meant seriously, even if the author just wrote what he wrote without thinking or for rhetorical effect. Should the planet be saved if we merely save it in a condition as bad, or nearly as bad, with respect to democracy, equality and freedom, as it is now? Note that I'm not asking the related but different question, could the planet be saved in such a condition? Some may argue that it couldn't be, that its deficiencies are themselves the cause of its going down the drain. Be this as it may, I want to concentrate on the issue that is overtly raised by what Chatterton says and Red Pepper highlights: would the planet be worth saving in its present or nearly its present condition?
Well, yes. There's a lot wrong with it, but there's also a lot right with it, and some of what's right with it is magnificent. Worth saving for that, I reckon. Also for the chance that, after it has been saved, there might be further opportunities to make it better than it is.