the WHY of #livebetterwithless
The latest IPCC report came out this week, with the same news that it had last time. It has caused a slew of posts to appear on social media and in some newspapers and for the same questions to be asked. Will this finally be the catalyst for change? What needs to happen for action to be taken? Is this it?
The answer is no. Nothing will change. We will all keep talking about climate change and the latest terrible flood, hurricane, tornado, forest fire and how many lives were lost and the financial impact of the event and how it can be attributed to climate change, and then we will all move onto the next thing. The next scandal, the next war, the latest iPhone.
We will all applaud the commitments from the countries and corporations to be net-zero by 2050 without understanding what that really means. We will all think about trying to consume ‘ethically’. Buying organic strawberries from Africa in winter, sustainable fast fashion from H&M while we drive our EVs (electric vehicles) around and post about how green we are on Instagram and Tiktok. But all of these are the equivalent of re-arranging the deck chairs on the titanic while the ship sinks beneath our feet
We have all been sold the fallacy that this type of individual action is what is required to save the planet. That we can make a difference by recycling our aluminum cans and bottles. That if we switch to EVs that biodiversity collapse will stop. What a load of rubbish. Individual action is great and positive and can make a real difference in small, localised areas. But that is not the individual action that we need now. We need meaningful individual action.
We need a social revolution. We need the youth to rise up and replace the (mostly) white male oligarchs that are in charge all over the globe. We need the people who are going to have to live with the changed climate and biodiversity collapse to take charge.
The (mostly) white male oligarchs don’t care about biodiversity collapse and climate change because they will be dead when it all starts to get serious on planet earth. These are the people who are too invested in the current system, because they are the people who overwhelming benefit from it. They are the 1% (or the 0.1%) and they have the most to lose. They would lose their influence and privilege. Lose their private jets and caviar, their private islands and sports teams.
Why would they lose these things? Because the revolution that we require is a revolution that secures all the remaining fossil fuels and puts them to the purpose that we need. That being to create the infrastructure of the future instead of towards ‘dolls that fart’ (credit: Andy Kenworthy).
We need ALL of our fossil fuels to be diverted to creating electrical power systems that can be maintained via the lower intensity power sources of the future (decentralized wind, waves and solar). We need to start doing this now to avoid the societal chaos and collapse that will occur if we don’t do this in a carefully managed fashion. Don’t delude yourself, this is the future. There is no future where fossil fuel access endlessly continues …..it is just a matter of time before we burn through them all and have nothing to replace them with.
If we know that fossil fuels will eventually run out (or that we need to leave them in the ground to prevent run away climate change) why aren’t we doing this now. Because the people who are in charge of the fossil fuels (the (mostly) white male oligarchs) don’t need to. They won’t be around when we run out of this scarce and amazing resource. Instead, their bones will be settling into the ground, on their way to create the fossil fuels of the future (in about 8 million years). I likely won’t be here either — which is lucky for me.
I personally believe that societal collapse is coming. I don’t know where it will start or what it will look like. What I do know is that the west has lost touch with nature. We’ve forgotten how dependent we are on it, how much stronger than us it is. We’ve forgotten that we can’t live without it. And once the tipping points are passed we will start to see disruptions and supply shortages. It will happen slowly but certain things will start to disappear. There won’t be a new iPhone one year because they couldn’t mine the lithium for the batteries. Certain foods/drinks will become scare because the water aquifers have dried up and the coffee plants can’t grow anymore. Eventually global transport will start to cease because the container ships can’t obtain fuel.
We’ve lived in a wonderful time. A time of plenty, when we could fritter away the energy created 8 million years ago without a thought or care because it was so abundant and (financially) cheap. My generation, and the one before us knows of nothing else. We have no concept of resource scarcity or finity (my new word to describe the opposite of infinity).
I am frequently asked if I think we can save the world. My honest answer is no. I believe that we are doomed as humans (in the affluent world) are selfish beasts who don’t want to make the necessary sacrifices to their lifestyles that are required. Why would we. It isn’t going to affect us, we won’t be here. I also despair for the next generation. I personally watch the 14 yr old in our household asking to buy yet another phone case, and when challenged that it has to come from China reply that it only takes a week. The next generation appear to have little to no concept of the finity of resources. Of what the coming impacts on their lives could be. I look to them for the future and revolution and I am met with a tidal wave of consumerism.
So how do I keep going. I personally take solace in the concepts of the ‘long defeat’ and the ‘eucatastrophe’. As Tim Beshara eloquently puts it “To Tolkien, eucatastrophe could only come about if you had faced up to the inevitability of ‘the long defeat’ and soldiered on regardless.” [1]
This is WHY I started talking about Living Better with Less. I believe that in the future everyone is going to have to live better with less because they won’t have a choice. The things that we consume today will just not exist. My proactive action is therefore to assimilate the knowledge on how we can live more simply, how to make and repair things, how to not consume so I, and maybe you, can live better in the coming future that you can’t avoid.
[1] https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/tolkien-s-inspiration-for-climate-advocates
