Global Weirding

My new life direction means that I spend a lot of time thinking about and considering environmental issues. Specifically how the buildings that we live in, and how we live in them, are contributing to climate change.

What I find the most difficult is that I move between Cambridge and the 'real world'. At Cambridge, there are many many people who spend their entire days considering how the planet is quickly falling into ruin. There are lectures and talks and courses. To be at Cambridge and be studying environmental issues means to be completely surrounded by facts and figures and knowledge. Rather disturbing knowledge. And every week I get an injection of this.

Then I come back to London, back to my industrial partner, and back to interacting with people who are not considering the global climate crisis every minute of their day. And the difference is jarring. How can all of these people continue to go about their daily (wasteful) lives and not consider what is happening to the planet? And particularly, how what they are doing as individuals is contributing to what is happening to the planet.

The thing is, I understand completely how this happens. Because our media and our government has yet to take the message to the people strongly. What would happen if we stopped being so consumerist? Global economy would collapse, or at least suffer very badly. What happens as a nation becomes westernized and industrialized? The more consumerist they become. The more they contribute to the wasteful global culture that is literally digesting the planet and its resources. We equate progress with consumption. It's a deadly error.

Not deadly to the planet mind you. But deadly to humans. Environmentalists aren't really talking about 'the death of the planet' because the planet is a fairly resilient place. Animal species will go extinct, it's true, but in general, life on earth will flourish. But human life will be another matter. If regions become uninhabitable, if sea levels rise, millions of people will die. If it gets very bad, nations will have to clamp down lest they become chaotic and uncontrolled. The future doesn't seem like such a nice place sometimes.

But who is really thinking about the future beyond what they might have for dinner? Or where they might go on holiday? It's too difficult I think for most people to look around their house, comforted by their things, go to their fully stocked shops, turn on their lights and heating and expect it to work, be surrounded by advertising for more stuff and understand that there is any sort of real crisis going on. It seems like it's far away, and affects other people, because it just isn't hitting home yet.

I suppose the fear is, when it finally hits home, will it be too late to make a difference? If only people would take small steps now, will that avert having to make massive sacrifices later? Who knows. I guess we'll all find out.

So this is my new life - crossing between this line of academic panic and cultural blindness. It's a somewhat unnerving place to be. It's not that I want to become a hard line environmentalist, but I can see how it happens. What else are you supposed to do with that level of fear and impotence? I tell you, some part of me wants to go build a self-sufficient home in the middle of America and turn my back on everything and take care of myself. That's what it makes me want to do. But if you can't do that, then you find yourself looking in fascination and horror at all of the waste and ignorance around you. It isn't comfortable. It isn't nice.

And I'm going to be doing this for three years?? It's only been a month. The future is a pretty scary place to tell you the truth. Full of change that we can't even begin to imagine. So I'm going to go watch TV and try to forget about it for a while. After all, when I calculated my carbon footprint I was pleased to see that I'm at half the average for my type of house. I'd be even better but my assumption of two return airplane trips per year really throw it out. Yet another reason to desire an alternative to flying!!