At a public meeting, just after an eminent scientist had painted a very scary picture of the looming climate change crisis, I heard a frightened person ask: “Are we on this steam-train trip to hell and even you scientists can’t stop climate change from destroying people and our planet — is that right?”
Dead wrong — we are not passive passengers.
We as individuals are an active and dynamic part of the social and commercial machinery that has Âcreated and is driving climate change. We are the train.
It is our own increasing demand for goods and services (“stuff”) that is unnecessarily and wastefully consuming more of the Earth’s resources than the Earth can Âsustainably supply.
It is the energy used and the waste and pollution created in the process of satisfying our insatiable demand that is substantially driving the Âphenomenon of climate change. What underlies this demand is an ill-conceived consumer culture value system that would have you believe that the more “stuff” you own and consume, the more important you are in society and the happier you will be in life.
Unfortunately, what the marketing and sales messages do not point out is that to get more “stuff” you need to work harder and have less time to enjoy all this “stuff”. ÂFurthermore, a growing body of social evidence and new Âeconomic models show that, after having reached beyond a point where your basic human needs are met, a Âsimpler and slower way of life with less “stuff” is actually more pleasurable, fulfilling and less stressful than the hectic pace of the acquisition-driven, Western consumer culture lifestyle.
Albert Einstein, who was a pretty smart problem-solver, said: “The world we have created today has problems that cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them.”
So if we wish to halt or slow down the process of climate change, we need to begin by questioning and revising the core value systems that drive our behaviour, which in turn create the effects of climate change that we are now seeing.
To replace the out-of-control locomotive analogy, here’s another way to look at ourselves. Famous media guru Marshall McLuhan put it aptly: “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth — we are all crew.”
So we need to start thinking like responsible crew members and take whatever effective action we Âindividually can to protect our Âcommon home and our life-support system. We can begin to heal Spaceship Earth by slowing down our hectic rush to acquire more “stuff” and take the time to enjoy those many things that do not contribute to climate change and which bring a different kind of added value to our lives.
David Parry-Davies is the editor of Enviropaedia, available at www.enviropaedia.com