Don't worry about a thing
Many big businesses want us to believe everything is gonna be alright. And we want to believe it too.
I’m an adopted fan of Burton Albion.
Adopted in the sense that I’m really a Liverpool fan, but now also support Burton as we have a branch of the family that lives in Burton-on-Trent.
There are many benefits that come from supporting a lower league team. Mostly to do with the fact that you can actually get tickets to go to games - and they don’t cost a fortune.
I have many happy memories of watching Burton Albion
One is the final game of the 2018 season, away at Preston North End.
Burton had somehow given themselves an outside chance of staying in the Championship, if results went their way on the final day.
It was a beautiful sunny day, and we travelled in hope.
At half time, Burton were behind. Other results weren’t going our way. It wasn’t looking good.
But it all changed in the 63rd minute. A stunning equaliser from Hope Akpan.
A scouser called Hope scoring in front of the Bill Shankly Kop. Hope giving us hope.
But we still needed the Bolton result to go our way.
Cue 15 minutes of frantic scrolling from thousands of Brewers fans on the BBC Sport app.
Then Nottingham Forest equalised against Bolton.
And then Forest scored again.
Cue yet more bedlam in the away end at Preston. As things stood, Burton were staying up.
Those of you who go to football matches will know that one thing away fans often do is sing a song, on repeat, for ages. Amongst other things it’s a way of getting yourselves heard when you’re outnumbered.
And so we started.
Don’t worry, about a thing. ‘Cause with Nigel Clough, it’s gonna be alright.
On repeat, for ages.
Convincing ourselves. Calming our nerves. Trying to steady the players’ nerves.
If you go to football matches, you’ll probably agree - the unity you feel when you’re all singing as one is wonderful. Particularly at away games. That’s why Preston away is such a happy memory.
But then it all went wrong
Word came through that Bolton had equalised. Which meant Burton had to score another to avoid being relegated.
Panic on the pitch.
Tension on the Kop. The singing stopped.
Burton threw everyone forward. And within a minute they were 2-1 down. Then we heard Bolton had scored again.
That was it. All hope gone. Burton were down.
You might be wondering why I’m telling this story
It’s all to do with the flight I took last week. My first flight for five years.
And the effort the airline went to to convince me, and everyone else, that everything was gonna be alright.
Don’t worry about a thing.
I’m paraphrasing - I was on my holidays after all and didn’t have my notebook - but the messages were loud and clear.
You’ve chosen to fly with one of the world’s most environmentally friendly airlines, they announced as we were taxiing to the runway.
And we’ve got your carbon covered. We’ve offset it for you. Other airlines encourage you to offset - we do it for you. All part of the service.
Don’t worry about a thing.
Everything’s gonna be alright.
And we’re on a journey towards Net Zero by 2050.
In the meantime, we’re cutting back on single use plastics on flights.
And introducing electric vehicles at airports.
And investing in alternative fuels.
Don’t worry about a thing.
Everything’s gonna be alright.
But everything isn’t gonna be alright, is it?
Something else trumpeted in the in-flight magazine was that the airline was expanding to another UK airport - with 12 new routes starting next year.
You don’t need to be a climate emergency expert to understand that the climate impacts of this kind of endless growth in air travel aren’t going to be cancelled out by switches to single-use plastics or more fuel efficient planes.
Now of course, as I detailed in this Linkedin post - I did my bit to fuel that expansion, by choosing to fly. Call me a hypocrite if you so wish.
But in my defence, I’ve also tried to do my bit to fly less - and encourage others to do the same.
Family holidays with more trains & fewer planes — here are a few things I’ve learnt along the way
How do we get better at having conversations about all of this?
In a roundabout way, this is what this story has been about.
We need to talk more about all of this.
And it’s hard.
I know, because I’ve tried. A lot.
One reason it’s hard is because marketing is used by businesses such as airlines to convince us that everything is gonna be alright.
Don’t worry about a thing.
And they are messages that are really compelling. They’re compelling because we hear them all the time - billions are spent on this kind of messaging.
To sustain the status quo. To keep us spending. To make us feel better about things that are getting in the way of us tackling the climate emergency.
And they’re compelling because they’re communicating what we want to hear. Particularly when we’re going on holiday.
Don’t worry about a thing.
Because everything’s gonna be alright.
Which brings me to the question that I ponder every day
How do we have better conversations about the fact that things aren’t alright? That things need to change. At scale. And quickly.