While Brexit is ongoing, climate change will never get the attention that it desperately needs

LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 22: Defendants pose behind a banner outside Ealing Magistrates Court before appearing on a charge of wilful obstruction after blocking a road near Heathrow Airport in protest at climate change on December 22, 2016 in London, England. 15 protesters were arrested in November after lying down and blocking a section of the M4 motorway to demonstrate against airport expansion and Heathrow's effect on climate change. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

A war footing for climate change? That’s the call being made by Ed Miliband this morning, as the IPPR launches its environmental justice commission, of which Miliband is one of the chairs, alongside former Conservative MP Laura Sandys and the sole Green MP Caroline Lucas.

Climate change is what the philosopher Timothy Morton calls a “hyper-object”: an issue so vast that we struggle to comprehend it most of the time. A crystallising event – unseasonable weather, a diverting statement from a former party leader – can briefly bring it into focus but we can’t consistently hold it in our minds.