Why Bother With Sustainability?

Sustainability is a word we are hearing more about.

• Ecological sustainability,
  
• Environmental Sustainability,
  
• Economic Sustainability,
  
• Sustainable Development,
  
• Sustainable Living... but what does it mean?

Not surprisingly, opinions differ depending on what your angle is, what your intention is and what you are look for in terms of an outcome.

Me personally? I've taken a few years to come to my personal definition and for me it is to find ways to live a long, healthy, satisfying and happy life without causing distress to the world around me.

I've not yet succeeded.

• I still rely on fossil fuels,
  
• I still consume WAY too much - energy, food and other resources.
  
• I still impact in devestating ways on the world around me. But I am doing much better than I was, even a year ago.
• I'm still slowly working my way to a sustainable lifestyle.

Recently I did some searching and researching and I came across an inspiring New York Times piece by Michael Pollan. I found the article to be a quite amusing (for my very acid sense of humour) in addition to being a very thought provoking article and it started a couple of good conversations around my dinner table and in the coffee shop.

Why would anyone, the average everyday kind of Earth dweller, bother educating themselves about and developing a personal response to Climate Change or Global Warming?

Why would you bother developing a more Sustainable Lifestyle?

Just like there are different definitions to the whole Sustainability word, I'm supposing that there are as many answers to the Why Bother? Question. So I've just looked at a couple which can be applied to almost every single person in the 'developed' and 'rapidly developing' worlds - yep that's you and me!

We who live the largly industrialised western lifestyle are having difficulty supporting the needs and wants of less than 1 billion people who fall into this category. We are rapidly depleting the resources that make our lifestyles and our cultural norms possible and yet that same less than 1 billion people (you and me) seem unwilling to look to ways to make the changes that will allow our current lifestyles sustainable even in the medium term, let alone the long term.

Despite the debate on climate change and global warming, it appears that there is a kind of uneasy consensus amongst the scientists and politicians that it is real and that most of the posturing is around whether or not “we” are making it worse and if so, how much.

So...

Reason #1 for why you, me and everyone we know should bother to learn about and RESPOND to Climate Change by developing a more sustainable lifestyle is ...

Because you can.

I don't know if your realise it but more of the worlds resources have gone into your upbringing and wellbeing than almost any other person in history. You are among the worlds most educated, well-fed, mobile, and well connected people on the planet. And so am I. We are so fortunate - even if you happen to fall at the bottom of the heap in our country, compared with most of the rest of humanity you are still incredibly lucky and powerful.

• You have an amazing brain and are the most well placed to utilise all those resources that have been poured into your life to learn about and respond to THE most pressing environmental, political and social crisis that has ever fallen to people to do something about.

• I have access to so much information, so much data, so much communication choice that it is easy for me to find out about this subject. It is easy for me to find the one piece of it that will be interesting to me, that will make it matter to me, that will allow me to become engaged in the subject.

So Do You.

• Michael Pollan, in his New York Times piece wrote primarily around food – that is what he does,that is his passion, his purpose. He wove his awareness of his responsibility as a citizen of the world and his passion for food, into something empowering for others who were looking for a way to respond to climate change.

So can you.

• You too have a passion and a purpose, you too have access to all the information and communication resources I have. You too can empower yourself and others to do something today.
• Maybe you could plant a herb garden - even some herbs in a pot on your balcony is a major step in the right direction.  Food security and good nutrition leading to good health are excellent sustainable practices.
• Maybe you could run a bicycle repair and maintenance programme at the school or community centre.  This will encourage people to become empowered around their transport and lead to improved fitness - both great sustainability practices.
• What if you joined a community garden, city farm or took out an allotment in your area.  Planting and eating seasonal vegetables, meeting like minded people and sharing your excess produce are good for your health, your sense of wellbeing and your community connections - you got it, all wonderful sustainability practices.
• What are you passionate about?  What special skills do you have that you can share with others?  Cooking, sewing, knitting, weaving, mechanical know how, woodworking, metal working, artistic or creative - maybe you have a secret family recipe for preserving fruit that would benefit others in your community.  Get out there are share your skills, many others will want and need them in the years ahead.

YES!

Quite a few but I'll just give you a couple more to get you thinking... and learning

Reason #2: Come one - it's too easy to make a different... go to it!

It is so easy, I get really frustrated with people trying to make it sound so difficult. Why can't they put as much energy into finding ways to make it easier rather than muddying the waters so? Hmmm, vested interests perhaps?

I get frustrated with people (who are just like me and you) who tell me that it's too big a problem and what can one person do about it? How can blame them? All they hear about are the difficulties and the expense and the political infighting, so few real solutions, so little agreement, so many incompatible definitions.

I get REALLY frustrated with people who moan and say that it's the responsibility of 'them' to fix it and why are 'they' taking so long! Honestly, stop looking outside your own sphere of influence for the solutions, stop laying blame, stop expecting someone else to clean up the mess. We are the gauge of popular opinion, we are who our leaders look to - if we don't sound like we want something done you can be they are not going to do it.

At the end of the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” Al Gore came up with something so simple, so easy for everyone to do that most people probably missed it. It was to change all your lighting over to energy efficient globes. Just a little thing. How on earth could that make any difference?

Every little thing will make a difference and it's those things that you have total control over.

You have the power in your life, in your home, in your workplace to make a lot of little changes, little adjustments, little suggestions. Little things are easy and YOU get responsibility for getting them going in your home and your neighbourhood.

Don't tell me you don't know what to do or how to do it.

Where have you Been?

• There is a LOT of information on how to cut your consumption of electricity, gas and oil on the internet, in magazines, on television shows.

• All these things will cut your energy use which will reduce your personal emissions that are adding to the problem of climate change.

• They are easy to implement, some of them are free, some will save your money, some are just little changes to the way you behave.

ALL of them make a difference - it is up to each one of us to act as an example to each other and to our leadership and show which direction we want to take. We want to continue to thrive, not for one or two political terms, not for one generation but many, many more. We want to thrive along with the rest of life on Earth, not at the cost of it.

Begin where you are right now.

• Change your light bulbs over,
  
• switch off the lights when you leave the room,
  
• turn off ALL non essential appliances when you go to bed,
• replace inefficient appliances with energy star rated efficient models when you can,
  
• think twice about how hot or how cold your home really needs to be,
  
• employ passive solar heating principles,
  
• go on an Energy Saver Challenge and see just how much energy and money you can save.

Then, move outside your private domain and look to see where and how you can make a difference in your workplace and your wider community. Don't worry, you won't be alone, there are many people us slolwy making their way and changing the world.