What are YOU giving up?

by Michelle Golder

Yes, you. You may have noticed; the world is facing an existential threat called climate change. It's the dragons and the white walkers together from Game of Thrones. It's the death star zeroing in on our planet. It's Sauron, reborn, with ten thousand benighted Saruman's (Sarumen?) carrying out his apocalyptic agenda. This is real, it's happening now, and you, since you're reading this, are probably a hobbit (the wizards are busy magicking up new renewable technologies and trying to re-invent nuclear). That is, you're a mostly harmless and well-intentioned person, but you feel small and helpless in the face of a scary and confusing problem. You don't want to be a hero, you feel ill-equipped and unready, and if you're honest you've been trying not to think about it, but you're starting to realise you really don't have a choice. It was your fate to be around at this crisis point in human history.  As in all the best stories, the path has chosen you. Your job is to travel it with a good heart.

Thousands of people are already trying, in lots of different ways.  To give one small example, I belong to a group called Zero Waste Heroes, set up in the UK by Rachelle Strauss. Their goal is to aim for a zero-waste life, and some determined souls take it as far as “family cloth” toilet hygiene (yay them?)

Many of the members though, including me, are nowhere near that level of zero-wastiness. Still, everyone in the group has made steps to reduce their consumption of the energy and goods (because unless it grew in your back garden it cost fossil energy to make) which are destroying our world.  I've given up flying, and significantly lessened my use of single-use plastic, factory-produced foods, meat and dairy, cleaning stuff and hygiene products, like fabric softener, hair conditioner and anti-perspirant (who knew? I never needed them).  I switched to a green energy supplier, guard the thermostat beadily, wash clothes in lower temps, and take fewer and shorter showers.

I'm not looking for kudos. Through sheer luck, I was born into one of the two regions (USA and Europe) which have contributed almost 50% of the atmospheric carbon currently blanketing the planet. If you’re now saying, wait, China, remember that carbon dioxide lasts at least a hundred years in the atmosphere. Though China is currently the biggest single emitter, due to its large population and rapid industrialisation, we started spewing fossil fuels a long time ago. Worse, the US still emits on average more per person than almost any other country, thanks to big houses, big cars, big office spaces, and an addiction to factory produced foods including way too much meat.

Given what we’re up against, my little sacrifices are clearly not enough.  Which is why I felt so peculiarly sad when I saw the example of this young couple, with their impressively meagre 30 days of waste.

Marcel and Blanca with all the waste they produced in 30 days. Picture used with their permission.

They tell me this wasn’t a sacrifice, it’s their normal routine, and saves them time and money, and I know that’s true, because anti-perspirant is freaking expensive. But there are other worlds of heroism they and their little piles represent. Worlds of beautiful, young faces, radiating kindness and resignation, who don’t know if they should have children, even if they want to. Who devote their free time, as these two do, to organising for systemic change. Whose "hope" for the future is that there is one. What more are they going to have to give up, years after my generation is gone? That’s what makes me sad.

Sigh.

But, the road goes on, and we were talking about you. I'll be honest, the title of this post is clickbait, because I don't really care what you're giving up right now. I’m sure you are doing your bit, but the truth is, it's what you and I are prepared to support in the near future that's really going to make a difference. Groups like the Extinction Rebellion and the UK Green Party and America's Green New Deal and many others around the world are gathering popular support and demanding political action and very soon, I hope, you and I are going to be asked a big question. That question is going to involve, in some form or another, a complete revolution of our economic system. It will involve a vote. It may involve changing your job or the way you do business. It will almost certainly cost you money and time. It will probably require a lot of additional and unfamiliar work – including any or all of:  local food production; participating in community energy schemes; changing how we travel; or becoming involved in new forms of public decision making.

It will also demand a complete rethink of our notions of fairness and justice, both within and across nations. Because if the better off among us try to shrug away our own share of the burden, know what others will say to that question? No.

And it's essential that we all say yes. Yes to a new,  circular, regenerative economic system, where everything  produced can be repaired or completely recycled. Yes to a massive, fair, global investment in climate change mitigation and preparedness, include funding research into all the technologies and regenerative systems that can help us. Yes to valuing the natural world as it should be valued - as the source of all life, the weaver of the web we live in and on, our father and mother.  

The writer Mac Macartney recently visited Cambridge to talk about his book The Children's Fire, based upon an indigenous peoples' concept that decision making should focus on protecting the children to the seventh generation. "A civilization is doomed," Mac said, "when it stops caring about its children." If we say no to the changes our world needs, that’s just what we are doing. Telling our children, and our children’s children, that we just don’t care.

I can't tell you the shape of the future. We're all in the process of making it. My personal (thanks again, Tolkien) dream is something between the Shire and Rivendell – a world where birds, bugs, children and animals, wildflower meadows and mushroom scented forests, all co-exist with beautiful green cities where art and positive (like magic!) technology flourish. To get there, I believe, we have to pass through a difficult and painful transition, like the one women go through when giving birth. But I remember how I felt when I'd passed through that transition and held my only child in my arms. I'd have done anything to protect him. So I’ll tell you what I’m not giving up. Hope.

You?

10 Ways Tackling Climate Change will Make Your Life Better

Last night I attended a great, packed meeting with three inspiring speakers and one clear message: the problem of climate change is looming faster and more dangerously than ever. Our planet is in the condition of a gravely sick patient.  It's too hot, its circulatory systems are full of toxins and its bloodcells - plants and animals - are dying off in droves. Unfortunately, the vector for this disease is us - humanity.

The planet's immune system is kicking in, with storms, sea surges and droughts threatening almost everywhere. The consequences are terrifying, but the fear doesn't seem to be working - the UK government has just made inexplicable cuts in renewable energy resourcing while at the same time reducing tax for the oil and gas industry, while the average person continues to stick their head in the sand and carry on as if nothing was happening.

But it doesn't have to be this way. We do know what we need to do to tackle climate change, and step one is revolutionising our economies. And you know what? That will lead to all sorts of amazing and exciting things that we can all look forward to. So here's my go at listing 10 fantastic results that will follow from taking on climate change.

1) It will restore huge parts of the earth to a state of beauty and peace we can all enjoy

It turns out, planting forests, restoring wetlands and fenlands, cleaning rivers and lakes, and protecting the ocean, are just what we need to do to prevent further climate change. These are the planet's vital organs and given the chance and a bit of time they will heal the damage done. Too much carbon in the atmosphere? Give that job to the trees and bogs, which pull carbon out of the air and fix it in their tissues. We could make the world like we imagine Eden to be again. Green, quiet, teeming with life. And wouldn't that be cool?

2) It will make the earth into a giant wild animal park

Well, maybe not exactly. But if we get number 1 right, it turns out that will encourage all forms of life. Imagine going to your local wetland, forest or rewilded meadow - and everyone will have one of those, because we can make little havens even in the middle of cities - and spotting critters like otters, kingfishers, foxes, hawks and butterflies by the score.  We might even get some species that have died out back - imagine if lynx, elk, beavers, maybe even wolves - once again roamed the UK!

3) It will make the world more equal

One of the problems of our current economic system is that it relies on a widely spread-out method of making stuff. Raw materials are bought cheaply from one place, shipped to another and with huge amounts of energy changed into processed materials, which are then shipped elsewhere (more energy lost) to be made into parts, which then go to a new place, and even the eventual finished product is often sent elsewhere for packaging before it's finally shipped and trucked to its point of sale. This wasteful process has allowed businesses to shop across the globe for the cheapest labour they can find, and that's resulted in economic disaster for many communities.

What's more, that labour is often cheap because the people involved live in unregulated societies - societies that have not yet solved the problem of protecting workers or the environment. So by exporting labour, companies move their manufacture to places where they are freer to pollute. And that's not good.

Once we tackle this problem though - and there are lots of ideas on the table for that - it will create new jobs in ALL communities. We'll have new, more localised ways of making stuff that give more people meaningful work and control over production. Big companies won't be as free to make money hand over fist without any regulation and the rest of us willl be much better off.

4) We'll be healthier

Pollution is deadly. Air pollution is one of the biggest killers in the world, and water pollution is just as bad. But it's not just those that will be better once we tackle climate change. We'll also need to change the way we eat. We'll all eat less meat, and no factory farmed meat or dairy, cause, sorry folks, those are some of the biggest contributors to climate change. Funnily enough, though, eating more veg, and healthy proteins like beans and pulses, nuts and mushrooms, is just what the doctor ordered for reducing rates of cancer, heart disease, and scads of other conditions. And the added bonus here will be:

5) Fewer domestic animals will suffer

We need to face the ugly facts. Factory farming and many other commercial farming practises are cruel. Someday we will look back at the things that were done to domestic animals like cows, sheep, pigs and chicken and be as shocked as we are now at medieval torture or burning at the stake. We'll never eliminate all suffering, for humans or animals. But revising the way we produce food will help an awful lot.

6) There will be lots of amazing new technologies

Renewable energy technologies like solar and wind power are improving almost every day. And that's going to drive prices down down down! So, in the long run, power will be cheap, and beautiful (I just don't understand people who don't like a windmill), and quiet, and fun and timesaving (no more battery changes once little solar panels are on all electronics) and clean. What's not to like? 

And that's not all! Technology can potentially help us produce more organic food, or grow building materials or even electronic devices in our back gardens. And transport? Imagine no lorries on the roads - they've all been replaced by giant, silent airships that can transport massive payloads for relatively tiny amounts of energy.

7) We'll be more connected with our communities

One of the most exciting ideas I've come across is the Circular Economy, which is beautifully described by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation here: www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy

A circular economy is based on the idea that we reduce waste to zero. Everything that's made is either re-used, repurposed, repaired or recycled. How do we do that? For one thing we expand on things that are already starting to happen. Heard of Repair Cafes? They're get-togethers where you bring your broken toaster or laptop or trousers with a broken zipper and some local genius fixes them for you. For free. The idea is that at some other time you might share a skill or some goods of your own. Can you help someone make a website? Cook cupcakes? Learn a language?  Join the sharing economy and start reaping the benefits. **

8) We'll be fitter

I actually think the bicycle is one of the most amazing inventions humanity has ever come up with. They make you fit and burn calories! They're fast! They're quiet! They can be made inexpensively, or tricked out to become ultra-hi-tec wonder machines. They come in shapes and sizes to fit everybody, of almost every degree of ability. Bicycle cargo innovation keeps getting better and better. And you can make them from bamboo!

And don't even get me started on the mental health benefits. The carbon neutral world of the future is going to be full of gorgeous people on gorgeous bikes and personally I can't wait.

9) We'll be happier

Folks, we got sold down the river. Too many of us have become wage slaves, tied to mountainous debt we've taken on to buy expensive junk we don't need and that isn't making our lives better. Just by buying less stuff, and being part of a new culture that doesn't value somebody by their car or their bling or their taste in handbags, we're going to resdiscover all the beautiful things that humanity is so good at. Like conversation. Storytelling. Music and dancing. Creativity. Togetherness. Growing stuff. Falling in love.

10) We'll reduce conflict

Global warming is not going to hit all the places on the earth equally. But it's wrong to think that places like the UK, which may find its growing season extended and enjoy warmer summers, have therefore dodged a bullet. It's the countries which currently have the least developed infrastructure and in many cases some of the world's biggest populations that will be worst hit, and if you think we have a refugee problem now imagine what it's going to be like if somewhere like Bangladesh becomes unlivable. And the conflict that outcomes like that will cause is already rearing its head and is not going to wait for the worst effects to escalate. So if we want to avoid war, and all the unimaginable horror that goes with it, we need to act now. For a more equal world. A more beautiful world. A new world.

Guys, I could go on. There are many other benefits to tackling climate change. But we won't see them unless we all make the commitment to change NOW. Commitment to pressuring our governments to make zero carbon now policies, to start big, positive conservation programmes for our forests and wetlands and oceans. Personal commitment to eating less meat and NO meat that isn't sustainable, to using renewable energy where possible, to reducing our consumption and eliminating waste. Commitment at our workplaces and social places to speaking up about what's going on and how we all have to be on board.

Be brave. We had the good fortune to be alive at a time of revolution. Our lives, and what we do with them, really do matter.

Michelle Golder, Pivotal Director and Ordinary Person

** Other ways the circular economy is happening:

• Swishing groups - people get together to swap clothes.
• Toy, tool or sports libraries - you don't really need the drill. You just need the hole. So why does everybody on your street need to buy a drill? Community resource libraries will save people money (see number 3, above) while saving the planet.
• Find out more about Cambridge's own Circular Economy here: circularcambridge.org/