Every once in awhile, we come across an article or post that really resonates with what we believe here at Bright Green Talent. Colin Beavan writes a blog called “No Impact Man,” and in this post he describes what he would say if climate change didn’t turn out to be real. While we don’t give much (any?) credit to climate change nay-sayers (check out these photos of melting artic ice we came across yesterday!), Colin lays out all the other benefits that can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. There’s a lot of good work to be done out there! (By the way, Grist has a great guide on how to talk to global warming skeptics.)
What I’d say if I was wrong about climate change
By Colin Beavan
I get emails from people, every so often, asking what I would say and feel if I was wrong about climate change. What would I say if, after dedicating years of my life to bringing attention to the problem, I found out there was no problem.
Well, first, of course, I would praise God in thanks that we have no catastrophe to contend with. Then, since many of the measures needed to deal with climate change have a lot of positive benefits, I will think:
- I am glad we created 5 million or more new jobs here in the United States in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable generation.
- I am glad we created a culture that relies less on foreign oil, so that our children can live secure lives, knowing that the energy rug can’t be pulled out from under them.
- I am glad we have found a way to save people and industry billions upon billions of dollars by making the use of energy more efficient.
- I am glad the millions of children who suffer from asthma can now breathe easier thanks to the fact that we aren’t pumping the air full of toxins from our exhaust pipes and smokestacks.
- I am glad that, by no longer burning oil and coal into our air, we’ve put an end to acid rain and the devastation of our aquatic life.
- I am glad that we created good, reliable, fun-to-use public transportation system so that families no longer have to raid their budgets to pay for cars and gas.
- I am glad we’ve stopped building suburbs, which make people unhappy and [thanks to the happy suburbanites who wrote in] are designed for cars not people, and instead build villages where people can have strong community bonds that help make life fulfilling.
- I am glad we now have fuel-efficient automobiles.
- I am glad that we’ve learned as a culture to get off the work-more-to-spend-more treadmill which gobbles up resources and leaves us unfulfilled and instead turned to a way of live full of meaning and purpose.
- I am glad we developed local, fresh food systems that care not just about filling bellies but what we put in those bellies.
- I am glad that we have rejected the philosophies of survival of the fittest and competition for resources as driving philosophies and have instead embraced a philosophy of compassion and justice.
- I am glad that we have understood that a sustainable society cannot work without supporting all of its people and that we looked for and found ways to improve the lives of everyone.
- I’m glad that we’ve come to see people rather than things as our most valuable resource and that, in embracing the respectful and loving principles of not wasting, we have learned not to waste youth in prisons but instead to get them help for their drug addictions and alcoholism.
- I am glad that, in realizing our resources are limited, we have come to use them to do what is important and to help each other rather than compete with each other.
- I am glad that we have come to see education as the ultimate in sustainable industries.
- I am glad that we have developed distributed, renewable energy technologies that allow kids in all parts of the world to have electric light so they can learn how to read.
- The list goes on and on, but in short, I am glad that we have embraced the opportunities presented by the crisis of climate change in order to improve our society in ways we should have done anyway.
And now, to turn the question back on those who say that either there is no climate change or that it is not a serious problem:
What would they feel if we did nothing about climate change and they turned out to be wrong?
What would they feel if we buried our heads in the sand, ignored the problem, and then irreversibly damaged the planetary habitat that we depend upon for our health, happiness and security?
Tags: climate change, green jobs, sustainability
I mean, really?? When I start feeling like I’m pretty far left of center, some drivel like this comes along from the way far left and makes me feel much more moderate. 2-absolutely, 3-long term, yes. 4 yes, 5 - maybe, though over-fishing is a much bigger problem. 6-sure, 7-I’m all for concentrated centers of population like SF and NYC. But villages? really? Sure, that’ll happen… 8-yep.
And then most of the rest are just laughable hippie nonsense. 11? 13, 14, 15, 17?!?! As if getting everyone to sing kumbaya is going to solve the climate crisis or is even *should* be a goal of the climate movement. This kind of wishful nonsense is what derails real policy discussions that can appeal to a broad set of the population. It also lends credibility to those on the right who say that climate change is just a tool for some to persue a radically leftist agenda - the author practically says as much in point 17!
Regardless of your thoughts on these issues, to argue that, for example, prison reform is related to climate change is just absurd. For all the author’s best intentions, Capitalism is going to have an immeasurably bigger hand in solving the climate crisis than all the people he can convince to hold hands and grow organic vegetables in their “villages”…
Brian, it’s worth thinking through how the prison system can benefit from programs to put people back to work–there’s a deep connection between the social and environmental justice issues embedded in both problems. Check out http://ellabakercenter.org/page.php?pageid=1 to learn about their “Books not Bars” and “Green Jobs for All” programs.
Generally, I don’t think these are leftist arguments or “drivel”. A bit of blue-sky thinking never hurts, and though your pragmatism’s worthwhile, the tone of your note undermines your credibility and forces everyone to take their eye off the ball. So here’s to a more positive, constructive dialogue focused on solving problems….