….our world has changed in the span of one human lifetime, and we are making it uninhabitable for ourselves.
….our governments, companies, and citizens choose not to act to prevent catastrophic consequences that approach us like a bullet train.
….we have failed to change and will not open our eyes to the reality around us because it is just too damn inconvenient to do so. Seeing the problem means that we have to get off our collective behinds and do something that we are unaccustomed to.
….unless something miraculous happens very, very soon, I worry that, well, we are up shit creek without a paddle
….I worry about what she worries about.
….that she is right.
[contains minor nudity]
“eXtinction is an environmental art short that brings together powerful storytelling and stirring imagery.It reveals that the most pressing environmental issues are not happening thousands of years from now, but are in fact happening within our lifetime — and specifically, on the timeline of one young woman’s life, from birth to death.CLAYTON HASKELL (director) takes viewers on a visually stunning journey through space and time, while SUMMER RAYNE OAKES (Producer/Writer/Actress) breathes fervent passion and emotion to the piece through her own personal story and life.eXtinction highlights ten of the most pressing environmental issues in the world and it’s up to all of us to take action. Visit the website http://extinctionfilm.tumblr.com/impact to find out how you can make a difference.”
While I agree with the sentiment in your post, I personally don’t like the video.
It seems to me that modern media makes a mockery of many things by creating hyper-emotional but ultimately vague pieces that don’t do a lot other than temporarily spark our green guilt.
Nature is not all svelte naked women and pretty flowers. It is muck and decay and misshapen vegetables. It is creepy crawlies and poo and cycles of life and death. All the smelly ugly parts of nature are just as vital but we’ve been conditioned to only like clean pretty things.
The film links to environmental charities that you can support, but I don’t think that’s enough. People can’t continue living the way they live and then just assuage their guilt with cash.
I think we’ve reached a point where we the broad problem is understood. From this point I think we need more things like your blog in the mainstream media, proposing and detailing changes that can be made. I think society needs to stigmatise harmful things like single-use plastics, a consumerist mindset, and living an unexamined life.
But like you, I fear for the future. I see people enthralled by the lives of talentless celebrities. I see them poisoning themselves with cigarettes. Drinking themselves unconscious. Watching TV and listening to radio that treats them like they’re stupid. If these people can’t even treat themselves with respect, we have no hope of them ever treating the environment with any.
Hi Raevan. Good observations, and I agree about the video. I put it in as a talking point, for the very fact that it was laden with emotion, and because the call to action was lack-luster. Buying our way out of guilt has not worked so far, and is unlikely to do so.
As for an awareness/understanding, I realise that it is probably there in a broader sense, but the current BAU seems so much easier for people.
Denial is a powerful emotion within itself. People in denial have an excuse to not care. Their thinking mainly goes something like this;
“If I don’t believe in climate change then I don’t have to feel guilty about my 15 litres per 100km V8. And I don’t have to take a minute to think about it as I decide to run my air-conditioner all weekend because it’s 25 degrees outside. Or my turn on my heater when it’s 21.
If I don’t believe that my actions are damaging the world that we live in, then I never have to make the (ever so slightly) harder choice of curbing my actions to make life better for future (and probably current) generations. And I’ll fight vehemently to “prove” that your’re wrong, and that none of us should be made to feel guilty or take responsibility for these global outcomes – specifically me.”
I still see people like this all the time in my travels.
Also, where I agree that outlets like my blog should be mainstream, the thought patterns that require it to be mainstream are just not there yet, an may never be due to TV and radio brainwashing. Modern media/advertising has a very tight rein on the minds and souls of our citizens.
Thanks again for your comment. It was very good food for thought.
Gav x
“Modern media/advertising has a very tight rein on the minds and souls of our citizens.”
This sounds like something from a science fiction novel, but it’s frighteningly true. People don’t seem to like to question the status quo.
Between the deniers, those who don’t care, and those who shift the blame to the corporate world, we’ve definitely got our work cut out for us.
Sadly change is a very individual thing and people have to make their own realisations in their own time. The best we can do is set a good example, as you’re doing, and hope that they catch on before it’s too late.
Wow, bravo Raevan, a very thoughtful response and so true. I love your blog Gavin, you are very inspirational and natural in your ways. Must go but keep up the great work. Surely it will sink in soon for the wider community – just takes the initial tireless efforts from folks like yourself (sometimes for years) for the mass markets’ to jump on board and label/market it as their own cool idea to give a shit about our sad and sorry planet. Doesn’t matter as long as people do get of their butts and make the “uncomfortable” changes necessary. Personally, I think the changes are very empowering and give a person a sense of ownership and hope for the future. Thanks again for all you (and community of like-minded souls/readers) do. Sincerely, Laura Matheson
Hi Laura, I couldn’t agree more. See my next post
i agree that was not a good video 🙁
i’m wondering gavin, do you really think that what you are doing is making a difference to the environment? do you really think that ripping out lawns and ornamentals and replacing them with veges and fruit trees is making an impact on our environment? even if every single house did the same thing? do you really think you’re being kind to our environment by buying milk to make cheese? or building a pizza oven?
i’m not trying to be critical of you personally- because I personally do a lot of the same things that you do yourself (i have a vege garden and fruit trees that i’m trying to sustain my family on- i try and limit my consumerism and buy second hand whenever i can, i recycle etc), yet really I don’t feel like it is contributing at all 🙁 and it’s frustrating me
sadly the things that might possibly make a real difference to our environment are unpalatable- like stop the world from having too many children or learning to accept eating GM foods that can be bred to be super productive using minimum resources from the environment (which is an idea i can’t cope with even though it potentially could feed our world much more effecively)…
or to actually find a real green energy that can sustain our world (of which we are still seeking)… and stop the world from it’s hungry caterpillar consumption of natural resources and ridiculous unsustainable consumerism resulting in overflowing rubbish tips and waste… to stop people from owning a backyard and force people to live in tiny apartments so we can keep stop our movement into our bushland/forests…
i think this is why people put their heads down and say, “i don’t wanna think about it- one day we’ll all be dead like the dinosaurs anyway”
sorry for my rant, it’s just we all want to do something, but what are the REAL solutions? things that will actually make a REAL difference and not just make us feel a little bit better about ourselves and that “we’re doing our bit”… and can the solutions actually be made a reality?
Hi Unknown, thanks for your comment/rant ;-). Let me have a think about this question, and I will reply via a blog post.
Gav x
So true. Personally I feel we have already hit the tipping point and our vain attempt to “keep the lights on” is just a waste of time and resources which we should spend on adaptation.
Personally I have adopted “lifeboat strategy” and moved to a remote Scottish island where I have access to the sea. I am trying to grow more of my own veg, I don’t drive or fly and haven’t bought any new clothes in about 3 years. I fish and forage and make cheese (love your other blog btw) from plughole diverted milk from a local shop. I think that we are still in that “who dies with the best toys wins” consumption culture and that as long as we have nation states in economic competition with each other we will not make the real personal effort or any realistic binding international deals. You only have to Look at Bali, Cancun, Copenhagen and Doha to get the idea…. Too little, too late.
It may be true that we have reached critical tipping points, but at least we should go down fighting to try and solve the issue?
I fear that the world will NOT wake up and smell the carbon-miles laden coffee with it’s pasteurised plastic encased milk and highly processed or artificial sweeteners in it and that our planet will not make it. 🙁
I sometimes think that it’s all too little too late but even if we are doomed as a species (and sometimes I feel that that is not such a bad thing) then I want to die knowing that at least I tried. I want to know that although my best wasn’t good enough, it was my best. I would rather not die with a guilt laden conscience that I KNEW and yet dd nothing.
Like you Jessie, I will be able to look my descendants in the eye and tell them that I tried my best
Hi Gavin, thank you very much for reposting my video. I had found it here through those who watched the video. To all those who didn’t enjoy the video, I absolutely respect your opinion – and thank you all for taking the time to watch it. The film, for me, was a cathartic experience. In a way, I didn’t even know what take action to incorporate with it… It was more done to share the way that I was feeling…I felt it powerful to be able to show that the changes in our environment are happening not thousands of years from now, but happening within our lifetime. If you would like to know more about the impetus behind the film, and the dedication to my late mentor, do feel free to read here:
– and no matter what you do – and how you express yourselves – that it is towards positive change and action. Have a blessed day.
Thanks for visiting Summer Rayne. I am glad you made the film, because it made people think, and have an open and honest discussion.
Keep up the great green work that you do!
Gav x