Okay folks, you’re gonna have to bear with me here, this is going to be a bit of an opinionated post, and if as a result you’re gonna flame me, be sure to do it with biomass 😉
It’s now less than 68 days before the International Climate Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) starts and all over blogs and news there is a rising amount of expectations. Can we reach a deal? Can we get Obama to attend? Can we get China to cut their emissions? Isn’t it too late anyway? If you’re reading this, chances are there’s little you can do about any of those questions above.
Or is there?
What I see happening right now is a big push for government policies across the globe to change, all this to give even more weight to COP15 to reach a global agreement to cut emissions and save the planet (well save us really, the planet’ll be fine) from uncontrollable runaway climate change. And it’s a fair thing to do, after all, climate scientists are becoming less and less optimistic about the time we have left before it gets out of control. But do we need to give in to the doom and gloom of the consequences of 200+ years of growing and now excessive consumerism? Perhaps not, the change is happening, it might not be happening as fast as some of us would like it to be but consider the response from World leaders now to how it was even just a year and a half ago. China and India may still have their emissions growing but they’ve made it clear that they’re aware of the problem and will work to tackle it, Britain is also leading the way in offering solutions, though one could argue that they’re still a bit slow to implement those solutions. The point is, there are reasons to be optimistic, look at this video below of Drew Jones speaking at an independant TED talk:
I think Drew’s right here, things are moving in the right direction but to go back to the original point of this post, there’s no need to sit and wait for Copenhagen to come and go. There’s much that our leaders can do to tackle Climate Change but all of this won’t help much if we, the Joe Bloggses who go to the polls, don’t take those matters in our own hands to bring the change that must happen if we don’t want our children to be left with a hot barren planet where they won’t live, but survive (oh, whoops, being pessimistic again…)
Now, most people either don’t care much about Climate Change or have had enough of that being shoved down their throat (seriously, how many of you are now sick and tired of hearing me rambling about it?). If you don’t care, there’s not much I can do or say that will change your attitude. Because for things to move along, this is what needs to happen.
I’ve seen comments on other climate blogs from people saying things along the lines of “do you mean we’ll have to go back to the lifestyle of the 1800s??”. No, far from it, the change of attitude we need is for us to become responsible consumers, and in order to do that we have to return to nurture the awareness that made us the dominant species on this planet before we got dulled by technological advance and easy access to food. And yes, I mean “us” as in “people in the west who use an excess of 80% of the planet’s resources”.
And this can happen now, no need to wait for 7 December, today or tomorrow when you go buy that box of chocolates you’ve been craving, ask yourself:
- Who made this?
- What is the packaging made of? Can it be recycled?
- How much fuel was used in the exploitation, transport, manufacture and distribution of the product?
- What extra chemicals did they put in there?
- [Insert your own question here, this is where awareness starts after all]
I’m not saying, stop buying chocolate or treats, but if you have the choice between the cheap supermarket brand, a known multinational or a company that grows things organically and through the fairtrade alliance, which would you choose and why?
That’s also a simple example of how to be more aware but don’t limit yourself to the shops, anything that is likely to cost you or your company money, whether through an invoice or a monthly bill is worth looking at from a new perspective. I could give you lots of tips about what to think about but instead, I’ll encourage you to sign up to Friends of the Earths tips and to come up with your own. If nothing else, you’ll find that being more aware of the resources we consume, actually saves us money and makes our living more enjoyable.
And here’s a disclamer to conclude: I’m not perfect, none of us are, nor do we need to be. There are many shades of green in nature and all of them are perfectly fine and beautiful. I can’t tell you what to do, I can only bring about the change I want to see in my own life. I’m still working on it, trying to find ideas, changing the things I buy, looking at where the fruits in the shop came from, grow things myself as best I can and ask myself: Do I really need this? Often, the answer is “no”.