The Glasgow Effect by Ellie Harrison

4 the glasgow effect
used to promote its cultural credentials within the artworld. Not
‘the Glasgow effect’ coined in 2008 to highlight our comparatively
poor public health. But soon, perhaps, ‘the Glasgow agreement’ – a
legally binding global treaty committing all nations of the world to
tackle climate change before it’s too late.
Given the urgent call to action in the ipcc’s most recent report
published on 9 August 2021, stating that ‘human-induced climate
change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes
in every region across the globe’ 3 – it is vital that ‘the Glasgow
agreement’ is reached, and that it commits all governments to do
what is ‘scientifically necessary’ to keep within 1.5ºc warming
and not just what is deemed ‘politically possible’. However, one
of the clear messages of this book is that targets and slogans are
meaningless unless matched with tangible action on the ground.
As one of the book’s heroes, economist EF Schumacher, says ‘an
ounce of practice is generally worth more than a ton of theory’. 4
We cannot allow cop26 to become just another pr exercise for
Glasgow. It should be a wake-up call and an opportunity to get
our own house in order as the eyes of the world look on.
When delegates from around the globe descend on Glasgow
this autumn, they will be shocked at the expensive and dysfunctional
public transport network, which we have been left
with as a result of the deregulation and privatisation of our buses
and trains in the ’80s and ’90s – that the Scottish Government has
done so little to address in more than two decades of devolution. 5
They will be shocked at the car-centric design of the city and the
massive six-lane motorway cutting right through its centre, which
Transport Scotland is currently spending £33.6 million repairing
without any consultation about alternatives. 6 And they may be
surprised to learn that 62 community venues in some of the most
deprived parts of the city are now under threat of privatisation
or permanent closure in the speciously named ‘People Make
Glasgow Communities’ scheme. 7 None of this shows signs of the
forward-looking ‘sustainable city of the future’, which we must
urgently become.
As we recover from the pandemic, it is vital that we continue
to localise our lifestyles and our economies – to ‘travel local’ and
to ‘buy local’ – as central to the ‘rapid and unprecedented societal