It didn’t happen easily - perhaps longer than any significant news cycle in recent memory - but now that the American elections are done, climate change realists around the world have expressed optimism. Here are the short, medium and long term reasons that make me hopeful:
Short term: Joe Biden, the president elect has vowed to get America and its vast resources and carbon emitting ways, back in line with the Paris climate accord within his first 100 days. In the here and now, this is just signalling, but as signals go, this is a big one. You already see articles (like the one in the link above) about the pressure mounting on Australia to fall in line now.
Most importantly, we couldn’t have had a cohesive global effort to improve the environment if the self proclaimed ‘leader of the free world’ was missing or worse going against the accord, so this is a very important and much needed change in stance.
Medium term: Beyond just the climate accord, Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris made ‘building back better’ and ‘clean energy’ a key part of their election platform. We’ve all seen politicians going back on their promises, but this page from their campaign website (screenshotted for posterity too) suggests it won’t be easy to brush it aside.
Could they go so far as to roll out a green new deal that would set a precedent for the ‘western’ world where carbon emissions per capita are amongst the highest?
Long term: Finally, the other reason I feel optimistic about the new president delivering on his promises is the fact that so many young people voted for him. I’ve said before in this blog that politicians are essentially just doing a job - nothing more, sometimes a lot less. If their performance is rated based on people’s votes, you’d think they would pay attention to the following data and realise the youth of today will become the key people whose votes they will rely on, in the 2020s and 2030s.
The other, perhaps biggest reason to be optimistic is the fact that, when it mattered the most, the people of America turned out in record numbers to vote. And pending a peaceful transition by January, democracy (flawed and messy as it may be), will have won out.
Research shows it is still the best way we have for people to feel bought into the decisions of their government, especially when/if the government has to make some radical and sometimes unpopular calls. Something I believe will become all the more necessary in the coming years.
So now we have reasons to be optimistic, what am I doing to channel it? Here it is grouped under these three headers:
If you believe in democracy, it is going to take all of us discussing and making deliberate decisions to bring about the sort of change we need. So I plan to make time for people and hope that earns me the right to start a discussion with them. Do they think we have a way out of climate change without making radical alterations to ways of living? What are they doing? What can I learn from them? This includes family, friends, co-workers all the way to neighbours and others in the community.
And you can all do the same - establish a link and then start the discussion. And note the word discussion - not debate, and certainly not monologue. If the other person presents valid opinions as to why they can’t or needn’t change, concede and come discuss it with others.
This is the empathy we all need to show. It will take time and being vulnerable, but most of us have lived good lives, and this is what we need to do to maintain that and improve the lives of others.
This blog has presented various options with regards to carbon offsetting, saving the Amazon, and enabling indigenious communities in the past. Money is often the easiest and most impactful way - much cleaner than giving your time too!
But one thing I’ve realised is that the above suggestions all have one common thread - anthropocentricity. For too long now, many of us, myself included, have focused our energy and donations on saving people and ensuring their bright futures. But relative to almost every other species, we have the most comfortable lives of any creature on this planet. And whether you believe only sentient beings need to be saved or not, as the planet’s spiritual leader David Attenborough says, the entire planet’s balance matters. And animals big and small are a vital part of it. To this end, I have started to donate to the biggest, most impactful animal charity of them all - WWF.
Donating to big charities has it’s cons, but occasionally one does need to do this to signal a change. Can you suggest some other charities I should back that are not human focused.
And how much should one donate? As a long term effective altruism fan, I believe money donated to the right causes will have such a positive impact that it is well worth investing 5-10% of one’s income. I’m working my way up to those ranges.
In April I said that if you haven’t had to change jobs by June of this crazy year (2020), you will be doing well. I did have to change my job, but luckily I’ve still been able to donate. I also committed to not travelling more than 12000 kms by flight and with Coronavirus looking to impede my options for a large part of next year too, this isn’t much of a challenge.
But closer to home, I believe I can do more. When starting this blog, based on the seminal book How Bad Are Bananas (new edition now out!), I thought plastic was annoying but would reducing it’s production affect climate change?
My wife, Abhijna recommended ‘War on Plastic’ - a show on BBC - and it has been an eye opener.
Not only does plastic require a lot of fossil fuels to produce but it just lasts and lasts. And to keep using plastic at the rate that many of us do, is to continue to be arrogant of it’s long run impact - the exact thing that goes against my point on discussing and being deliberate.
So we’re looking at every piece of plastic we throw away to understand if it’s truly recyclable or not. And having started to notice all the useless plastic waste we generate (that isn’t going anywhere) we’re making a conscious effort to reduce the amount of plastic we buy.
Zero waste stores and vegetables from our local vendor instead of the super market have helped a lot. We’ll also be using the rest of our savings from things like travel and commute on better purchases in the first place that are either totally plastic free or made of such high quality materials that the whole thing lasts much longer.
Have more ideas for us? Get in touch via Facebook or Twitter and together we can help each other achieve Lowco living.
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