I had the wonderful fortune of attending a presentation on ethics and sustainability recently conducted by Dr Liz Baker. It is the first time I’ve heard her speak, and I honestly hope it isn’t the last. I wanted to share with you some of the gems she spoke about, and I only hope I can give it some justice.
At the start of the presentation, Dr Baker posed, “to be environmentally and economically sustainable, we must ask ourselves, ‘What is it to be human?’” The answer has far-reaching implications for both, and both rely on the answer. The rest of her presentation explored this concept.
Voted as one of the top 25 images from Wikipedia, this is "Lonely House" by Michael Otto. Surely this typifies utopia?
Our current way of thinking is based on assumptions. We have to assume that tomorrow will be like today. This concept has been the accepted view for as long as anyone can remember. It is now, however, that the echoes of yesterday are felt today. At first, those echoes were almost inaudible, but today they are getting louder and louder and can not be ignored. We can no longer assume that tomorrow will be like yesterday – that assumption is gone.
Is this our preferred reality? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When asked what our preferred reality is, the participants answered with predictability. We wanted equality in all things for all people. We wanted happiness. We wanted less bureaucracy and world population, instead asking for good infrastructure and better integration of natural resources. Ultimately we wanted to feel secure and safe - a state of equilibrium between humans and the environment.
The reality is something quite the opposite, and perhaps reflects on what it is to be human. We are heading into an era with more population, advanced technology, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, resource wars, over exploitation, resource depletion and dramatic environmental change. Dr Baker pointed out that we tend to overestimate the change of two years, and under-estimate the change in 20. I truly hope this reality is an overestimation but I fear that it can only be an under-estimation. Let us hope that we continue to develop change and mitigation strategies.
“The future is not some place we are going to but one we create. The paths to it are not found but are made and the activity of making them changes both the destination and the maker.” Paulo Freiere, 1973
Dr Baker used several activities throughout her lecture, but this one in particular struck a chord with me. She painted this scenario: you are in a hot air balloon that has just struck the side of a building. The 10 sandbags on the balloon are causing it to lose altitude fast. You are asked to toss the airbags over side to help us survive this possible disaster.
The sandbags have real-time consequences and you are asked to throw one sandbag out at time to save yourself. The sandbag choices are:
*insert thinking music here*
- I am able to participate in decisions that affect me
- I have access to wilderness areas
- I have access to a wide range of consumer goods
- I have clean, healthy food
- I own my car
- I am able to express dissent (ie: disagree)
- I have clean air and water
- I have personal space
- I have the right to be different
- I have access to education.
If you are like our audience, the first ones to throw would have been things like owning a car, having access to consumer goods and optional things such as personal space or education. The ones most tended to hang on to were food, air and water. According to Dr Baker, this is the normal result. Some where during the process, we gave up the rights to participate in the decision-making process and the right to dissent (to fight for our fair share), and no one even mourned the loss of such powerful statements. What good are the water, air and food you have now? Those things will run out, and without a voice to fight for your right to more, you are as good as dead. It is only after you are denied these basic expectations that you being to value them the most. Is this, then, what it is to be human?
Baker pointed out that there is not a good correlation between what people say and what they will do.
- Is your stance on reducing your carbon foot print reflected in your shopping basket?
- You valued clean, healthy food, and yet you chose to consume McDonalds.
- You value air and yet you smoke.
What you chose to wear, eat and do shapes the future we shall share, and your actions speak so loudly to me, that I can not hear what you speak.
Very beautiful and inspiring, thanks for sharing
=)
How did your sandbags go?
Very interesting and thought provoking Rhianna. What an interesting life you lead! It makes our discussions with our lecturer (albeit pleasant) positively boring in comparison. It’s interesting that you were asked to quantify a list of important human rights and put them into order. I see simplification as being one of the fundamental ways to educate people regarding sustainability and learning to live with less so that we can continue to use the earths resources with care and consideration for coming generations. Making people aware of their behaviour and how what they are doing directly impacts on the futures of their children and their childrens children is a much more important (and relelvant) way to get people to effect change in their lives than long lists of fear inducing facts about doom, gloom and worldly demise. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day…teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime, surely it’s the same with educating people about their consumerist actions and the impact that they have on the earth. Giving people information allows them to switch off and ignore what is happening, showing them the correlation between their actions and what is happening and giving them the personal tools to effect change in their lives gives them a sense of empowerment and ability to do something. Gone are the feelings of lost hope and fear and in their place there is a newfound realisation of just how powerful choice is when it comes to effecting change. So lets get back to the conundrum shall we… we have struck a building, we are sliding down the building in our hot air balloon…we are being asked to dump sandbags to save ourselves…I choose…to jump out of the hot air balloon and onto a window ledge/balcony on the building! forgedaboudit…there are always other ways to look at things and giving up my fundamental basic human rights apart from those revolving around consumerism and shallow wants is not an option. It brings to mind a biblical saying “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” As unethical as many religeons have been in their own quest for maintaining power over their flocks, this statement still holds true and is very pertinent to this argument.
(oops…”religions”…spelling never was one of my strong points
)
Hey Narf,
I am not sure if I lead an interesting life or not. I am just a poor 40 something uni student who is trying to share some knowledge that may just benefit the survival of the human race. I would not normally have come into contact with this lecturer, but she is a guest presenter for this particular unit that I chose to do as an elective. I am so glad I did, because for me, her entire presentation was a validation of my entire existence. I hope to bring you more short posts about the eye openers she shared during that three hour lecture. When I have time… ahhh time – my arch nemesis!
I agree with you that when things are simplified, people tend to cope better. By and large, humans are an excitable beast, prone to panic and irrationality. Keeping the messages simple help to ease the savage beast and keep it on the straight and narrow. Lets hope the message gets through :O)
This is very similar to the Climate Walk session we ran here in Sheffield with the New Economics Foundation – a London-based think tank – which developed this tool. Basically Climate Walk is a facilitated process which helps event participants to identify what they need to give up in order to improve the way we use our Planet’s increasingly limited natural resources.
Its a great process, and really had people thinking. Thanks for sharing.