The time for change is now
In our July 10 edition, we reported on a meeting between Argyll campaigners and the region’s MP Brendan O’Hara to press for change in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The campaign group, known as Time for Change – Argyll and Bute, believes the time is now to put people, climate and nature at the heart of the UK’s recovery. In the third in our series of followup opinion pieces, we hear from Tayvallich resident Rowan Aitchison, aged 20, who is just starting a career as a camerman.
I believe we all have a deep spiritual connection with nature. For most people this has slowly been diminished and has taken with it a care for the species and habitats we share our planet with.
Humans have caused the extinction of many species and the climate crisis threatens many more with extinction. If we are unable to see all species, including ourselves, as equally important for the role they play in our complex ecosystem, we will continue to erode our relationship with nature.
Something everyone can do is read about what the likely consequences of not having a green recovery might be like. If we all understand the risks involved in continuing as we are, everyone will be eager to make the changes necessary to avoid climate crisis.
We need to start engaging with the many different parts of our lives to reduce our carbon footprint. We may all be doing our recycling at home, but have you thought about asking your boss about greening your work’s electricity supply or questioned whether your money is being invested in fossil fuels by your bank or pension fund?
Changes
Over the last three years I have changed many things in my life. I do not think anyone is perfect at this, but we can all start to make small changes. For example, I have switched to a plant-based diet, stopped buying new clothes, take the train instead of flying whenever I can and offset any flights I do take for work. I have also started reforesting a section of hill behind our house and am in the process of working out how to stop flying completely, which may involve changing my career. Many people are doing much better than I am at reducing their emissions. Greta Thunberg, for example, sailed across the Atlantic to avoid flying. While we can find inspiration in these people to improve our lives, we need to remember they will make mistakes like the rest of us and that this is okay.
A way we can encourage change is to lead by example. If we live our lives as sustainably as possible, it doesn’t take long for others to start adopting some of the solutions.
To incorporate kindness in our public policy would be great, but we need to partner this with equity. We need to start helping those who have the least to achieve a good quality of life.
It it often said that by raising millions of people out of poverty they will adopt a ‘Western lifestyle’ that the planet cannot support. The problem here is not giving people the resources they need: the problem is our Western lifstyle. The earth could easily support 10 billion people if we all lived within the planetary boundaries but keeping people in poverty so that some can live high carbon lives is deeply immoral. It is so important that as we transition to a low carbon economy we bring everyone with us and leave no one behind.
Profit
Our political system measures its success and failure on how much money we can make, or GDP. This means profit from things like gambling or crime count towards our collective success, while looking after elderly relatives and volunteering do not.
We need to retire GDP as a measure of our well-being and work towards a system that allows people to live a fulfilling life. We need to accept money is not the key to human happiness and start putting our well-being before increasing profit margins.
All these small changes in the right direction add up and make a difference, but we also need to make system changes decided by government. The more people starting conversations with our elected officials about their fears of climate change, the higher it climbs up the political agendas. We need to keep reminding them this is our most urgent challenge and it won’t be solved by the usual short-term politics.