I just have to get this out of my system, so bear with me.
I have been aware of global warming and climate change since my teens – which is is quite a while ago. Anyone who vaguely reads anything of substance surely can’t help but be aware of the climate issue. Anyone who even remotely thinks surely realise that in a closed system that is our planet, our actions must have an impact.
Why is it only now that we are all getting "a-w-a-r-e" of it? We have spent years with our collective heads in the sand pretending all is well. We collectively get on with our lives as if nothing we do really matters. Suddenly, when we can actually feel the heat/cold, and insurance premiums are about to go up (and some property prices drop) because of increasingly extreme weather systems and rising tides, we finally actually get it? (Or is it because politicians are only now getting on the bandwagon?)
Are we really that dumb collectively? Is humanity really that short-sighted and self delusional? Are we so caught up lemming-like in the global consumption craze that we don’t notice we are drowning in our own poo (at least not until it starts pouring into our homes)? I can’t believe that there are still people who go around saying “I don’t believe in climate change.”
Businesses play a big part of course. Grow, grow, grow is the overriding entrepreneurial mantra. Buy, buy, buy is the brain-numbing message to consumers. And we seem to lap it all up. Stuff the consequences, I want my fuel-guzzling 4WD, big screen plasmas, fancy luxury packaging, pointless products for puerile needs, disposable “convenience” goods…
Much as I applaud the current change in attitude towards climate change, a part of me sometimes really really REALLY want this weather thing to completely f*ck up the world. Maybe that will learn us good, damn it.
But it probably won’t. If history is anything to go by.
So there.
Each and every one of us thus have two clear choices:
- Continue as before. Fulfil our birthright to consume unthinkingly and with abandon (to keep the economy strong and businesses flourishing). Climate is someone else’s problem; the government will fix it. Justify our actions to ourselves and stay in denial.Continue to do business-as-usual. Grow as much as you can (grow = consume resources). Use any method you can (bugger ethics) to get people to buy more.
- Take personal responsibility for our own actions. Face reality. Do the right thing everyday; even if this often appears utterly futile. That way, we would have done everything we can (without agonising over trying to change others who don’t want to be changed).Design your business to be more responsible. Use less resources where at all possible. Think about, and take responsibility for what you sell and how that impacts the world.
I think I’ll go have a drink now.
(Oh yeah, if you are one of these people who don’t believe in climate change, my response is: “You’d better not have kids – for their sakes, and ours.”)
