Published by Camilla on 27 Oct 2011 at 08:15 am
So what’s stopping us all from going green?
This week, I was delighted to welcome Simran Sethi, renowned journalist and academic to our WiserLocal gathering at la Ruche in Paris. Simran shared some of the research she’s been doing for her forthcoming book focused on the Psychological Barriers to Environmental Engagement, or in short, “what’s stopping us all from going green?”
Named one of the top ten eco-heroes of the planet by the Britain’s Independent newspaper and lauded ‘the environmental messenger’ by Vanity Fair, Simran’s latest message is that the environmental movement urgently needs to move beyond the ‘one-size-fits-all’ climate change campaigns and scare-based tactics centred on cities falling into the sea by 2050, to the framing of issues based on the real concerns of people in the street.
“Researchers at Yale talk about the finite pool of worry” she says. “When we start talking about climate change and all the problems going on in the world, people start to tune out because we can’t hold it all in our heads. It’s the same when we start talking about what might happen a long time into the future. The person in the street is just thinking ‘OK, I have to walk my dog today’. However, when you start taking some of their daily worries away, people start listening […] So, if we say that by reducing pollution we also reduce childhood asthma, people get it. In the end, it’s all about framing”.
Watch video Simran Sethi talking about why the drumbeat is not working
Simran also talked about the power of social media in creating social and environmental change. “The tools are here, we just need to know how to harness them”, she says. She explained that crowdsourcing is one way to do this. One example she gave is a site called Loudsource which is helping people to crowdfund PR campaigns. It’s currently being used by people supporting the Occupy Wall Street campaign, so that people in the street can get help from PR professionals in designing and printing banners for their local campaign. The Enabling City is another example. It open sources information on urban planning.
“Researchers from Yale reminded me that we’re still working with the same minds that we had 200,000 years ago”, says Simran.
Our challenge now is really to understand what that means when we frame the issues we care about to those around us.
For more on Simran Sethi, check out her site at http://simransethi.tumblr.com/ or follow h er on Twitter: @SimranSethi
See the photos and videos from Simran’s visit to Paris and add your questions for Simran here on WiserEarth: http://bit.ly/w0ecyC
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11 Responses to “So what’s stopping us all from going green?”
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I’m just curious to know how many air miles Simran has clocked up traveling around the states and across to Paris, etc?
Would it not have been less expensive, both financially and environmentally, to have stayed at home and used the internet to video conference?
Or am I being naive?
While all of what is written here about what Simran espouses is true, what we really (or rather also) need to do is start looking at how we get people who don’t live in the wealthy countries to start thinking green.
It is a LUXURY to even take the time to think about what being green means. Sure you’re concerned about “walking your dog”, in between your job that pays you $60k a year, and the movie date you have tonight, and some quick shopping you want to do downtown, and decided what, of all your options, you want to cook for dinner, and putting time in on Skype to your friends in NY, and all the emails you need and want to send before reading another chapter in the new Salman Rushdie book you are reading. That’s all great.
But what about the majority of people on the planet who may not individually be creating as much trash or using as much oil in their daily lives, but who collectively do a substantial amount of damage to their communities and the planet’s future. First of all, they don’t even know there’s a “green movement”, because they’re certainly not getting the emails, or joining the online groups, or watching the documentaries, or choosing which trash bin to use, or choosing between paper or plastic, or buying a car with better gas mileage, or taking off work a half hour early to attend that sustainability discussion group, or seeing a single person in their lives or government who’s ever even mentioned something like this.
Steeping away from assumption that everyone has the same internet access and habits as we do, and everyone watches at least some Planet Earth Channel, and all governments have even the vaguest concern about these things, or that people read other than the very local newspaper that just talks about last night’s murders and who looks great in a bikini, or that people have even a moment’s free time or that most people have even attended high school. How do we raise understanding and concern among people who are not very similar to us? Many of these people are on Facebook and youtube. But it’s only to watch reggeton videos and post photos of themselves for their friend. They are not “social networking” the way you and I are.
And commenter Mike, hiding behind the computer by replacing human interaction with things like video conferencing, only minimizes your audience by like 90%. Sometimes, you have to actually interact with people physically and unfortunately, that often requires taking mechanized transportation.
Writing as a moderator at the Eco-Village Network (UK), as founder of a ‘sustainable community living project’ (showcase Eco-Village) – and as a social entrepreneur, who’s a self-employed, (single) RURAL parent – I can answer the question in one word:
LAND.
The people who all want to live (& live sustainably) – are simply ALL those with no money or land in the first place.
No matter what the planning guidelines say – there has been no land available for anyone to live on sustainably (going back 2000 odd years, when all women’s rights & land rites were taken away by the Romans).
If you have no money to buy the land – and without any land, you can’t get a grant for your own sustainable community project – then how can you buy the land upon which to live sustainably?
If your social enterprise is land-based (as a showcase Eco-Village) – and you have no land, then how can you prove the validity of your business as a social enterprise – because you can’t earn any income from your social enterprise, because you don’t have any land.
If you rent a house – then you have NO say in how the house is fuelled & heated.
If you’re rich & comfortable – and own your own home, or are a landlord, then you probably don’t care about the need to live sustainably.
Unfortunately, far too many decision makers see ‘sustainability’ as being of economic impact (ONLY) – and not environmental sustainability.
My own research is now sought by my ex-lecturer to use as class resources to teach Environmental Sustainability. (After I took Global Ark Projects & The Tree Ark Project to him, to check that I had indeed hit all the planning guidelines.)
He confirmed that I had – I’d been starting to doubt my proficiency, as I’d not had any response from local Asset teams at the council, nor from most MPs – especially the Honorable Eric Pickles MP & Grant Shapps.
I built the Tree Ark Project as a showcase, which was designed to show people how to build their own Eco-Homes, build their own renewable power generators, and was networked in readiness to do so with the local college/university, Eco-Village Network, Permaculture etc – and have just continued to find more of the same sustainable solutions, while I live in unaffordable/unsustainable housing.
I’m just about to get my show on the road, as my sister’s got some money through to me – and I’m now buying a truck with a stage & a generator for Eco-Festivals, plus a land-rover to take around the local organic farms & land-owners.
Both will show PDFs, YouTubes & Pod-Casts from Permaculture, Eco-Villages & Wiser Earth Organisation via Ark’s (mobile) charitable Internet Cafe.
I’ll be printing out BlueGREEN prints of Open Source Ecology & Permaculture designs to help farmers & communities to become sustainable (without any money) – and I’ll be showing how people can live virtually ‘FREE’.
If ONLY ‘we’ (W.E. @Wiser Earth), could have some land… then maybe we could actually start to show our research as social entrepreneurs, to local people. (Rather than having to sit still & write it all, repeatedly all the time.)
Without any land – w.e. are all compelled to live UNsustainably.
W.E. have no choice.
‘AnEarthMother’ @WiserEarth @Twitter @Facebook
Linda Beamish
Eco-Ethical (& architectural) Design/er Consultant
& Ark Building Social Entrepreneur.
Founder/Editor/Administrator/etc:
http://www.GlobalArkProjects.com (NPD) NET4NON
http://www.TheTreeArkProject.org (Eco-Village showcase)
http://www.Eco-Designs.net
http://www.Eco-Designs.co.uk
(& about 15 more websites, designed to allow for total inclusion to meet planning guidelines)
As is usually the case it would be misleading to try to over-simplify the reasons we can or cannot collectively elicit change. But there are also usually some bigger obstacles which are not difficult to identify. In the case of going green I can offer one such ‘large rock’, which you may have talked about before: and that is, in the first world, our culture of consumption. You know, the one which is so firmly implanted in our psyches. It makes us want stuff. New, catchy stuff which we imagine we cannot do without. It drives profit, investment, stock prices. It employs the planet. It makes the world go round (or so we are led to believe). Unfortunately it consumes and wastes scads of fossil energy and materials, is a major cause of climate change and is completely unsustainable. It is the well honed and time proven tool of profit minded capitalists and they fully intend for this culture of consumption to continue. Have you bought the new iPhone yet?
Creating a culture of going green runs directly at odds with a culture of consumption. It means adding ‘environment’ to the list of what is important to us (but not just those reading this blog – everyone!!). It requires reducing, re-using, re-cycling, none of which speaks to profits and stock values. It requires eschewing the latest, greatest and catchiest and learning to make do with what we already have.
Ok, this is your blog not mine, I would appreciate if you could take the subject from here and expound on how we can create a culture of sustainability in the face of what is so obviously working against it.
Thanks
To your question Mike, Simran was already in France for other reasons when she very kindly accepted WiserEarth’s invitation to come to speak at the WiserLocal gathering in Paris. But you rightly point out that SKYPE (and other online tools) can play a critical role in reducing our need to fly. However, as Allen points out, there are times when ‘love miles’ (as Transition Towns movement calls them) are necessary and the video conference can’t fully replace face-to-face human interaction.
Thank you Allen for your comments. I agree that being green is currently a ‘privilege’ and that if you already have internet access and are reading this article, you’re still likely to be among the very privileged of this world. The digital, education and wealth global divide continues to create a chasm between the haves (who can afford to ‘go green’) and the have nots (who are trying to simply make ends meet).
Thank you Linda/AnEarthMother. I agree that LAND is also a critical part of this discussion. And as OldSteveH adds, our human obsession with bulimic consumption further throws a rock onto our path for creating lasting change.
So the question has been posed….How we can start to create a human culture of sustainability?
How do you decide that you are green enough? Most of us don’t have the knowledge, let alone motivation, to live a zero-carbon, completely sustainable life style. So then we are left with the idea that being green is relative. My small passive solar home with wood heat is greener than my sister’s large house with 2 heat pumps. But I use more energy and resources than someone sharing a small apartment and using a bicycle for transportation. The wood for my stove comes primarily from dead and diseased trees. Am I greener than someone cutting the last few small trees in their rural community for cooking even though that person never drives a car or buys anything wrapped in plastic? Our local solar installer charges $8 a watt to install solar panels. This puts the cost of solar energy well out of reach of most. Is he green for installing solar or is he discouraging being green by charging such a high price?
Who is going to teach/motivate the Nicaraguans not to throw plastic bags and bottles all over the highways and beaches? Or the Jamaicans and Haitians to build compost piles instead of large useless trash piles? Who is to say that you are not green because you choose to drive across country instead of flying in a private jet like the celebrity you like to compare yourself too?
I don’t have an answer except that each of us who cares contributes what we can to reach and teach others.
Greta Lee
Is it cool to disagree with someone who has been “named one of the top ten eco-heroes of the planet”?
For example, what if the problem isn’t that the environmental movement urgently needs to move beyond the ‘one-size-fits-all’ climate change campaigns — but that the enviro movement needs to move onto the mother of all “one-size-fits-all” campaigns, namely telling the truth (damn the funding consequences) about how freaking scarily urgent the climate change emergency is. What if the dissonance between hearing “ho hum, this is urgent” and seeing no world leaders (except perhaps the president of the Maldives) act as though this is an urgent problem — what if that is a major barrier?
What if a major barrier is that many of the world’s religions still haven’t owned up to the fact that we humans are animals? So people still don’t get that we’re connected to the rest of nature, and that our fate hangs with theirs — ie, we’re an endangered species. (So you’re not going to have a dog to walk if we keep this up! Climate change as an animal rights issue.)
And what if we don’t have the same brains we had 200,000 years ago? What if it’s different because we’ve evolved into an agricultural species? What if we’re eons more self-aware nowadays? What if we start making the connections between an unstable climate and lack of food (since agriculture needs a stable climate)?
And what if we told the truth … that the problem isn’t rising sea levels in 2050, but failing crops in just a few years? What if we started a global climate change literacy campaign so that people can start to figure out the urgency for themselves … summer Arctic sea ice disappears, the Northern Hemisphere loses its summer “air conditioning” — just as crops need a moderated climate. Equals crop failures and famines.
Or are we just going to reject out-of-hand any mention of the fact that our entire species is at risk, because we don’t want to be negative or over-worry people who haven’t figured out what to have for dinner yet?
I agree with “GreenHearted”.
When I said land – what I’m indicating, is the fact that no matter how viable & practical your proposed social enterprise is – and no matter how long you have spent to ensure that every single Global problem & Planning Guideline has been metred and met, you are not going to get anywhere – because the people who stole all the land from the people 2000 years ago, STILL control it.
The land is the Earth – the whole planet… The WHOLE Eco-System.
As an Ecological (architectural) Design Consultant – I’ve researched & written a full report on the subject, “Earth, Financial OR Life Asset”.
(I had to write it to quanitify why I proposed Global Ark Projects as a social enterprise.)
In fact, I started writing about pollution as an eight year old child in the 1960s – and its been the passion which has fed my entire life.
As with Noah’s original – An Ark Project – is any project which ethically sustains & floats life, sustainably, through the predicted storm.
We don’t all have to die – and ethically, it shouldn’t be just the rich who have the money (& rights) TO live sustainably through the storm of climate change.
Seeing all the richest, most insensitive, corrupt & vile people, all sitting on some luxury ‘vessel’ – watching all the dead little black bodies floating by their portholes – was one of the first visions I had, as I started to build my social enterprise.
Ethically – this is immoral.
In fact, its as immoral as the lack of human rights which affect all people without money – or land rites.
The people who own Earth – don’t want us to live sustainably upon it.
Countries don’t own their own countries – the rich people do… Those who either made their money on the stock market, or inherited it as “Landed Gentry”.
Politicians don’t make the rules – they are controlled by the rich people who sponsor them – who “pull their strings”.
Lets face it – if any political party actually had control of itself, then (having accepted Agenda 21), they should simply have asked their populace how many wanted to live sustainably – and how many needed help to do so.
Apart from one University in the USA – I’ve not found any research to show that ANY other body in the world has actually asked the people that one single question.
Other than this one quesion now – “So What’s Stopping Us ALL From Going Green”.
The minute any Government asks its people how many WANT to live green – then they lose the slaves of their workforce… Because, if we ARE ALLOWED to live sustainably, we won’t have to work in their factories for peanuts any more, and their share-holders will lose their investments.
Witholding land from the peasants – has ensured workforces of ‘slave labour’ for two centuries.
Ultimately, the worst climate prediction is solar winter.
No matter how people manage the land organically, sustainably (and even in Permaculture – which is heaven on Earth for ALL).
The dinosaurs couldn’t replant the trees – or build anaerobic digesters.
We can – or at least, we can if we are allowed to do so.
Rules & Regulations.
WE are bound up by “Red-Tape”.
WE don’t need Red Tape to live – we need water, soil, warmth, darkness. proteins/nutrients, and sunshine + the opportunity of seeds by which to grow, (& grow our own food).
Practical, viable, low-impact and zero-impact design solutions HAVE been proven totally viable across the world.
Unfortunately, very few of us ‘peasants’ are actually allowed to use those examples to live sustainably ourselves.
The Mayan Calendar predicted that 2012 will be the year in which humanity evolved, based on each time zone on Earth being one 23rd of the previous.
When the Mayan’s wrote that, they had no idea that we would have invented the internet – which allows us all the opportunity to connect as one giant & global conscience.
2012 can be the dawn of our own awakening – as we change and evolve into our own Green conscience of awareness.
Those who have no internet – are not those who are polluting & killing this Earth – OUR home.
Those who DO have the internet – and who have a conscience – are sitting around this table right now, asking what is stopping us from living green.
Those who have the internet – and who have NO conscience – are all sitting around this table right now, watching those of us WITH a conscience – and ensuring that we fail to impact their own financial security.
As GreenHeart said – “Dam the funding consequences” (- indeed!!:D)
What needs saying – needs saying.
(I’ve not got any funding – at all – hence I am completely free to represent all the grassroots & radical roots + all the children in my network.)
I am completely free of all ties & restrictions which would have been placed upon me, had I had any grant funding or investment placed upon me.
I’m not just speaking my words – but am repeating those of everyone whom I have asked – “Would you like to live sustainably” – “Would you like to live Ecologically” – “Are you afraid of the consequences of climate change” + “What would you like or need to live sustainably” (??)
I’ve not just asked my family & friends, but my networks, children, squatters, homeless people and strangers.
I’ve asked in person – as so many people live without the internet – and, as I had no funding, I couldn’t launch a press campaign.
I’ve even paid to have a stand at Earth Day events – to ask that question of attendees.
The feedback has been tarnished and affected – because practically all my friends & most in my networks are environmentalists & humanitarians, as were most of the attendees at Earth Days.
Most are single, rural, parents – who, like me, work from home on a freelance basis – to bring up their children alone, and without any maintenance from any absent parent.
Most of us are survivors of domestic abuse – and have been actively campaigning for environmental change for decades. (In fact, some are even the original tree protestors who were attacked by police & government officials.)
Over the decades, many have been beaten to submission – and have given up their dreams of “living green”, as it was just too painful to continue.
The only reason I haven’t given up trying to live green myself – is that I cannot, or otherwise I will never be able to live with my husband as man & wife – according to the Immigration Rules of this/any country.
(PLUS, without having funding – I’ve had to gain the agreement of my children, who have gone without shoes, uniforms, heating, birthday & christmas presents, school trips – and even food. What sort of mother – or Earth Mother – would I be, if I failed to do the right thing for my own children….?)
What sort of parent – goes out to buy the latest contraption promoted on the television for their children – knowing that the workers who made the components for it – threw themselves out of the windows to their deaths, because the working conditions were so bad that they prefered to be free by death? – E.G. Apple iPad.
What sort of parent – races out to buy all the consumer goods to feed their children – when the result of the long-term consequences of increasing the market of dependency on those same (unsustainable & unethically manufactured) consumer goods – takes away ALL potential life of their own children’s futures for tomorrow?
As a social enterprise, The Ark Directory is designed to show all that is GOOD, ethical & sustainable.
To date, there has not been one single point or doorway by which people could find all “The Best” Ecological & Ethical design solutions on the market today – which actually showed why people needed to buy them, over the shiny, unsustainable/unethical glossy versions with the expensive advertising campaigns.
The Ark Directory has been Ecologically & Ethically designed to fill that GAP in the market. (The acronym of Global Ark Projects = GAP.)
The net profits from all incomes earned in commisssions – will simply go back to all the non-profit organisations in the world – to ensure that humanities future is guaranteed. (Ethically).
We cannot allow all the richest, least sustainable & non-ethical people in the world – TO control us, because if we do, it will kill us ALL anyway by default.
Please see the jobs section on Wiser Earth & look for the ‘many’ jobs which are needed to be fulfilled in order to float your own Global “Ark” (type) Projects – and to provide the float for your own business plans, to ensure that your non-profit organisation can float, regardless of any economical global recession – or, global ecological catastrophe.
Basically, without the control or input of ethical investors, I’ve had to do everything myself – which means that all the research findings – and all the links to your own non-profit organisations – and to each of your own sustainable design solutions – ALL needs loading into the Ark’s Directory.
The Directory will provide everyone with the access point to find “The Best” green design solutions in the world. (To find that which they need to survive, ethically.)
ALL the net profits earned will be re-distributed – effectively providing the funds needed by us all – to buy the land to live upon.
Without any portion of Earth to stand upon – or to plant our food – how are we to live green?
If WE ALL join in (together) and participate in ONE global action – then WE win by democratically voting with our feet.
WE don’t have to live unsustainably – and WE don’t have to be controlled by the unethical, all consuming capitalists.
W.E. ARE (one) Wiser Earth!!:D
Reference: Greta Lee’s comments,
We are currently in discussions on how to share this information. (Potential to use Climate CoLab/Ark ‘platform’ & Cool Planet’s Eco-Navigator system.
Tony Gosling – UK Ecovillage Network/ – who suggested that we form an ‘Educational Trust’.
+
Tony Smith MA, Architect & Lecturer in Sustainable Construction & Environmental Sustainability – who said he’s happy to run an Open Source Education ‘channel’. (So long as the system works far better than it did previously!)
Eugene in UK Ecovillage Network – also wants to work with us – he’s UK Director of Open Source Ecology.
And – as for …”each of us who cares contributes what we can to reach and teach others” – I wholeheartedly agree.
It is the only way – all we need is a large bucket in which we can all add our own experience, so that it can be spooned back out where it’s needed the most.
It’s not as if there is a lack of substance – its just that as yet, there’s no pool of it in user friendly format.
We simply need a good library system, with the potential of colour coding the results for speed recognition – where we could all insert all the brilliant sustainable, zero carbon, zero methane, zero impact design solutions, we’ve all found – either via the internet, or on Earth’s ground.
Like Permaculture – which appears to be the biggest pool of Ecological & Sustainable design solutions on Earth.
(For example – “how green is green?” could be tempered by a series of indicative ‘stars’ on an Eco-Ethical labelling system… which could also include yellow ‘in transition’ and red, for danger – or “STOP”.)
Linda.
I love this discussion and the User Friendly emphasis on usable directory tool.
I appreciate what someone said, that if one can connect the dots such as air pollution and childhood asthma being linked, so too can we connect most actions, to so many other affects.
You might be familiar with the mindmap model?
This lends itself to being a great visual and tool to link things together, showing that interconnectedness.
As Linda commented, color coding is a great idea, ease is the key.
Here are a couple of interesting examples to look are just to further plant some seeds:
http://live-the-solution.com/wp-content/uploads/strategies-for-change.jpg
There are interesting examples on this website, and of course, they can be made more artfully or less, depending on your goal.
Strategies for change
Goal setting for a livable planet
http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2004/08/03/407/
The organization ViewChange has a wonderful style too.
http://www.viewchange.org/
Not to add too many more departments to the huge list that can look infinite and daunting, I wanted to point out an obvious mark, just to make sure it is considered.
As so many of the tangible concerns point to environmental issues and solutions, there is a need to keep reminding and pointing out that social and community relations are both affected by where we are in relation to these issues, as well as effect the success of this global paradigm awareness. The “invisible structures” category in permaculture.
brings it right home to each and every one of us.
And to continue with a bit of permaculture wisdom, somewhere the Solution is in the Problem. The community building of this very Library has great potential.
Thanks for the intention,
Rose
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservationand improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements