A Sustainable future means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. I believe that sustainability is a journey, a process and also a state of mind; it's about the Human Spirit, our outlook on life, our neighbours, ourselves and everything we share our planet with.
During my long career in the environmental movement, I've worked with countless individuals, groups, NGO's, organisations, politicians - even a former USA Vice-President in an attempt to push forward the concept of environmental sustainability. Some progress has been made of course, but we now seem to have reached a point where humanity is precariously balanced between greater self-potential and environmental disaster. However,we must see our predicament as not simply an environmental issue, but a common social and moral responsibility, and we desperately need a shift in consciousness - a kind of spiritual awakening otherwise we will simply perpetuate the insanity of the past or at best only treat the symptoms of our dis-ease, not the underlying causes.
For me, being an 'Environmentalist' was never really enough anyway; if I was ever going to do my small bit towards promoting an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this planet and really start to change attitudes and behaviours, it became clear to me some years ago that I would need to acquire a wider range of skills to achieve my objectives.
Sustainable Development has many different definitions, but mine has always seen spiritual and social values as essential ingredients. (See above) So today, I combine the skills of Consultant, Facilitator and Therapist because we must now go beyond mere environmentalism and present a far more holistic and joined-up approach to our work on sustainability. Gone (I hope) are the days of lecturing, blaming and bullying - we are now at last beginning to take people with us and better understand their motivations and even explore things like the psychology of changing attitudes and behaviour.
We have come to believe that we are separate from, and superior to, nature and have unhitched ourselves from the biological reality we are a part of. In an attempt to further disassociate ourselves from our actions, we have created 'environmental issues' so that we can hide or marginalise the chaos we are creating and get on with the more important things in life.
My mantra is this: There ARE no environmental issues - EVERYTHING we do is an environmental issue.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
"Good thoughts are no better than good dreams, unless they be executed." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sunday was our Grandsons' seventh birthday.We spent the afternoon at his home with some of the family, and watched proudly as he opened his presents; the usual boys stuff - computer games, a few books and some plastic robots and cars.The conversation among the adults quickly turned to the amount of 'stuff' we all think we need these days and the effect all of this junk has on our environment. My opinion was sought about the latest state of the climate, and my reply was honest but measured considering that we were attending a birthday celebration and everybody was supposed to be happy.
The family are just good, caring, ordinary people concerned for the future of this small boy and his young parents, and they complained to me that they found it confusing and difficult to find out what effective action they should take to reduce their environmental impact/carbon footprint. There seemed to be plenty of information out there, but most of it seemed to be conflicting greenwash: To make matters worse, our leaders don't appear to be doing anything about climate change yet so why should they?
On Monday, I found myself in a room with some of those leaders at the Houses of Parliament for one of my regular meetings as a member of The All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group. After hearing some of the latest incredibly dire projections about 'Aggravated Accumulation', and the fact that we only have until 2012 - yes 2012 before we reach the point of no return, we settled down to watch a special preview of a new film about our rapidly changing climate.
'The Age of Stupid' was introduced to us by actor Pete Postlethwaite - he's the guy with the 'lived in' features who Stephen Spielberg called 'The best actor in the world'. This enormously ambitious independent drama-documentary-animation hybrid stars Oscar-nominated Pete as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching "archive" footage from 2007 and asking: Why didn't we stop climate change while we had the chance?
However, all the way through this well crafted, incredibly moving film, I could see the face of my grandson sitting amongst all of his new plastic toys, looking at me and saying ' Why didn't you stop climate change while you had the chance Grandad'?
Although I have been working on climate change for many years now, including some work with Al Gore and his people on 'An Inconvenient Truth' a couple of years ago, Sunday and Monday gave me something to think about - maybe it's another wake up call. Whatever, this time around it's personal.
So - there's no time to lose, here's the plan.Firstly, we need to address the situation about the lack of reliable, accessible environmental information. One of the most successful websites in the UK is Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert.com, a truly intuitive one-stop-shop for information and advice about finance. We need to do the same for environmental issues, so I am in the process of seting up a website called EnvironmentalExpert.org, which I hope will eventually achieve similar popularity. More on this later.
Secondly, with The All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group, (APPCCG) our main objective is to shake our politicians into decisive action on climate issues. One of the tangible outcomes so far is the forthcoming Climate Change Bill which will be made law later this year. It's a groundbreaking piece of legislation which will make the UK the first country in the world to commit to legally-binding cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, but it still needs some strengthening by the Autumn. In addition, we are pressing for a Cross-Party Consensus on Climate Change. I will need your help with lobbying yor MP on both these critical issues. Again, more to follow.
Finally, next to accurate, empowering information, the most important thing people expect on critical issues like this is leadership. Where are our leaders when we need them? Could it be that they are feeling as disempowered as the rest of us? I am now looking at what needs to be done to influence the main political parties on climate change issues in the run up to and during the party conference season in the Autumn.
Let's be in no doubt about the urgency and seriousness of the situation we are all in: If you had a choice to be in a car crash at five miles per hour, or one going at fifty mph, which one would you choose? That, in a nutshell is where we are at.
If you are with me, call me . . . Just don't call me Grandad!
The family are just good, caring, ordinary people concerned for the future of this small boy and his young parents, and they complained to me that they found it confusing and difficult to find out what effective action they should take to reduce their environmental impact/carbon footprint. There seemed to be plenty of information out there, but most of it seemed to be conflicting greenwash: To make matters worse, our leaders don't appear to be doing anything about climate change yet so why should they?
On Monday, I found myself in a room with some of those leaders at the Houses of Parliament for one of my regular meetings as a member of The All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group. After hearing some of the latest incredibly dire projections about 'Aggravated Accumulation', and the fact that we only have until 2012 - yes 2012 before we reach the point of no return, we settled down to watch a special preview of a new film about our rapidly changing climate.
'The Age of Stupid' was introduced to us by actor Pete Postlethwaite - he's the guy with the 'lived in' features who Stephen Spielberg called 'The best actor in the world'. This enormously ambitious independent drama-documentary-animation hybrid stars Oscar-nominated Pete as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching "archive" footage from 2007 and asking: Why didn't we stop climate change while we had the chance?
However, all the way through this well crafted, incredibly moving film, I could see the face of my grandson sitting amongst all of his new plastic toys, looking at me and saying ' Why didn't you stop climate change while you had the chance Grandad'?
Although I have been working on climate change for many years now, including some work with Al Gore and his people on 'An Inconvenient Truth' a couple of years ago, Sunday and Monday gave me something to think about - maybe it's another wake up call. Whatever, this time around it's personal.
So - there's no time to lose, here's the plan.Firstly, we need to address the situation about the lack of reliable, accessible environmental information. One of the most successful websites in the UK is Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert.com, a truly intuitive one-stop-shop for information and advice about finance. We need to do the same for environmental issues, so I am in the process of seting up a website called EnvironmentalExpert.org, which I hope will eventually achieve similar popularity. More on this later.
Secondly, with The All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group, (APPCCG) our main objective is to shake our politicians into decisive action on climate issues. One of the tangible outcomes so far is the forthcoming Climate Change Bill which will be made law later this year. It's a groundbreaking piece of legislation which will make the UK the first country in the world to commit to legally-binding cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, but it still needs some strengthening by the Autumn. In addition, we are pressing for a Cross-Party Consensus on Climate Change. I will need your help with lobbying yor MP on both these critical issues. Again, more to follow.
Finally, next to accurate, empowering information, the most important thing people expect on critical issues like this is leadership. Where are our leaders when we need them? Could it be that they are feeling as disempowered as the rest of us? I am now looking at what needs to be done to influence the main political parties on climate change issues in the run up to and during the party conference season in the Autumn.
Let's be in no doubt about the urgency and seriousness of the situation we are all in: If you had a choice to be in a car crash at five miles per hour, or one going at fifty mph, which one would you choose? That, in a nutshell is where we are at.
If you are with me, call me . . . Just don't call me Grandad!
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