When I talk to some people about the seriousness of climate change, they tend to not take me too seriously, and I think it is mainly for these two reasons:
- If what you say is true, why isn’t the government doing a lot more?, and,
- If what you say is true, why aren’t there people protesting in the streets?
That’s because there’s no sense of urgency. In the national newspapers you can read about the West Antarctic Ice Sheet breaking up and raising sea levels by 1 metre, right next to a story about the Prime Ministers Business Adviser Maurice Newman saying that Climate Change is a hoax perpetuated by the United Nations. One is true, and the other a quack, but if you didn’t know better you would give the dire climate change story less weight.
Therefore, one very good reason for taking drastic public measures in the form of activism, street marches, protests, walk against warming etc. in addition to just changing your life as best you can, is quite simply to create a sense of urgency in the general population.
Because right now, that sense of urgency is not there at all. Mind you, that may change pretty soon if water gets scarce and food supplies dwindle and more beach-side properties begin to slip underwater.
The mechanism that counteracts the creation of a sense of urgency by the usual means (i.e. by articles about droughts, heat-waves, melting ice shelves etc. in the newspaper, posts in environmental blogs similar to mine, and warnings by climate scientists) is this;
A while ago, I was working at in an office tower, when there was an audible alarm. It sounded like it might be something serious, but I didn’t know for sure. So I looked around to see how other people reacted.
Since nobody seemed overly worried, I concluded that it was probably not a signal to leave the building, and so I continued working instead of running down the fire stairs. Sure enough, it turned out to have been some technical glitch with the alarm system.
You see, the same happens in the larger context. When ordinary people read truly alarming stuff in the newspaper, hear it on the radio, or see it on TV, they will check around them to see how everybody else is reacting. If others don’t seem to be overly worried, they’ll shrug, decide that the alarming report was probably exaggerated, and continue about their daily business.
The only problem is in the case of climate change, we know it’s not a technical glitch, and it’s not an exaggeration, either.
They really should be worried. By not being worried right now, could turn out to be devastating for the human race.
And all this talk about saving the planet is rubbish. We need to save ourselves from ourselves. The planet will get along just fine without us, albeit in a slightly altered state and probably a lot better off, but with a lot less species inhabiting it.
It is this reason, in my humble opinion, why we need to start behaving like people who really do believe they are living in the time of the greatest emergency mankind has ever faced.
We need visible and real action because only visible and real action communicates to people who there is an emergency going on, and they should pitch in and help.
If more people also begin to notice the emergency, then my work is not for naught. Ordinary people will begin to act in a positive way to help avert the climate crisis by voluntarily lowering their carbon footprints, or alternatively, the government of the time acting on policy and legislating large cuts in emissions and change the way we use fossil fuels.
Crisis over, and the emergency mostly goes away, except for the global warming that is already locked in.
I believe that at this point in time it will be the only way we will be able to save ourselves, unless a global leader takes the reins and leads us down the right path to avert the climate emergency. There are signs of hope in the direction of the US and China of late, and some hope for meaningful emissions cuts at Paris at COP21. But unfortunately no such meaningful action in Australia.
Source: David Pope 2014.
In this country, environmental leadership is a rare commodity indeed. Don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen any time soon. Look what they’ve done in reducing the Renewable Energy Target in the last few weeks. Bloody ludicrous and the opposite direction we should be moving.
It will be up to people like you and me to step up to the crease and bat winning score! The great thing is that lots of ordinary Aussies are installing their own renewable energy systems in the form of Solar PV on their homes.
We just need better incentives to keep the momentum going. Taking away government subsidies from the fossil fuel industry would be a fantastic start, as would placing a price on carbon emissions.
Oh, that’s right, we had one of those that was actually working.
Some clown took it away. I wonder who that could be?
I’ve often wondered the same, Gavin, but I stopped waiting for others to act and decided to be the change I want to see. I’m busy changing my own life, and I refuse to wait for my government and fellow citizens to adjust accordingly to climate warnings. What I’ve found is a growing community of people making the right adjustments, and I am inspired by that. The urgency is there, but change can only happen incrementally. If I had an unlimited budget, I would do more faster, but that’s not the case. I think many others are faced with similar circumstances. Thank you for continuing to bring awareness of this dire issue.
The trouble is, Gav, most people suffer from wilful blindness and simply don’t want to know. I’ve been trying to wake people up to environmental issues for 30 years. I got sick of the ratbag greenie tag and stopped doing any sort of activism or educational activity. It is just too hard dealing with people who want to remain ignorant because it’s a comforting position. And as for politicians…well, don’t get me started there. You are doing a good job via your blog…perhaps that’s because things are considerably worse than they were 30 years ago and some people are having to sit up and take notice. I’m encouraged to see it’s mostly young people in this group, so maybe that’s a good sign for the future. Also it’s a long time since I’ve seen the bumper sticker that was common in my day: ‘fertilise the bush, doze in a greenie’.
‘No sense of urgency’ is what it’s all about Gavin. I often feel very down about what’s happening in our world and sometimes I look around and just think ‘this is insane!’ And that’s really what it is – insanity.
“We’re in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone’s arguing over where they’re going to sit.” David Suzuki
Hi Gav,
I thought a long time about replying to this post. My initial reaction to it was oh no, not more gloom and doom. I’ve been trying to have a greener footprint since the eighties when I read David Suzuki’s It’s A Matter Of Survival. I think I’m now going through some kind of green burnout.
It seems as though some of us are in hyperdrive making heroic efforts to reduce our carbon footprint – and let’s face it, if you work, have kids, and have other things going on in your life living with a small footprint can be exhausting as you try to grow your own food, mend and make do everything and find goods second hand/not made with slave labor/low on carbon miles/organic – it goes on and on.
Whilst I don’t intend to stop being politically active, I think I have to question why my enthusiasm is waning. A few of us can’t carry everyone, and unless a change of lifestyle looks attractive (rather than a response to fear), no-one is going to want to get on board.
My thought is that instead of talking about how urgent and awful it is, we need to start living a more traditional lifestyle and involving people in it. Maybe if people enjoy it enough they will be inspired to follow suit. I’m thinking of things like the way the Greeks lived until recently – a diet from their back doorstep low in animal food, going everywhere on foot, making and preserving food, and most importantly sharing it with family and friends. Daily. As we know, food is one of the biggest culprits in the global warming picture.
I for one could do with a glass of organic red wine, some local olives and cheese and a good laugh shared with friends. I no longer think I’m failing if I don’t substitute moss for toilet paper and subsist on dandelion greens from my lawn!!
So let’s lighten up a bit – start a knitting or sewing circle, invite your mates around for some delicious food, have a clothes swap – I’m sure others can come up with lots of good ideas.
Madeleine.x
PS my response is in no way a criticism of your post – believe me at times most of my 60,000 thoughts a day are along the very lines you expressed above.
I struggle to understand my fellow human beings. The majority spend the bulk of their lives striving for a secure future – paying off the home, building nest eggs for retirement and to leave as much as they can to the kids, but when it comes to climate change they don’t give a stuff. It seems strange to be working and saving for a good future for oneself and one’s own and not include climate and the environment as essential to a good and secure future. You would think that the most important thing to any human being concerned with comfort and security would be a stable climate that was tolerable to live in. I am not sure what is the problem with peoples’ thinking. Do they not understand what is happening to our world or is it all too hard and they just want to bury their heads in the sand in the hope that it all magically just goes away? One thing for sure, when the rhythm of their lives are disrupted by drought, heatwaves, bushfires and floods they all want something done to restore normality. We live in a fools paradise. I am fed up with people telling me that expressing concern about climate change issues is ‘being negative’ and I am fed up with thinking that depicts ‘greenies’ as wanting to stop progress. I have no time for such people anymore and focus all my energies on reducing my own footprint and raising a family that shares my vision
I love all these people who have commented here, Gav; they are like a community. No-one can go it alone and make it work, being self-sufficient. That is what communities are for; it is possible to have maybe 100 – 1000 or maybe more people working at being a self-sufficient community….. they share stuff, grow different things, do different jobs but everything they do helps the others too. It is called a closed system and we need LOTS of them so everyone is included. This is how communities started, when people moved from being hunter-gatherers to villagers. There was nowhere else to go to get shoes, clothes, food etc. Everyone in the group had to co-operate and no-one starved!
Every so often a neighbouring group would come by and show what they’d made, share knowledge, have a party, swap stuff. Then they’d go home again to their community. In this way communities can engage with others and learn from each other. It all got out of hand along the way, and now we are supposed to be a global village but it is way too big. All we have to do is get into smaller groups again and be clever about how we live happy, healthy lives, by regaining community.
Ok so this is what I do: I buy new stuff and food ONLY from people I know or people who have grown / made it in my local community. ALL other stuff I buy second hand, from Gum Tree, second hand shops etc. This way I am not contributing to new stuff made outside my community. Eventually I hope everyone in my community will participate. Then we can start buying stuff / services from each in a more useful way. Maybe a community could be much bigger, like a city? What is the limit?