There was once an expression ‘you have to laugh, you’d only cry otherwise’. What else can someone do when looking at the facts and figures and the inertia, the inaction, the hesitation, the belated adoption of measures and then ignoring them? How many scientists had been saying for how long that governments needed to put into place the public health policies that would be needed come the next, inevitable, pandemic? A lot. How many governments heeded the warnings? Very very few. So we went into a prolonged phase of knee jerk reactions, lies, propaganda and death. It’ll most probably be the same with the next, inevitable, pandemic.
It’s the same old story with the climate except it’s even worse. Governments, one after another, start to agree that climate change is a problem, they make promises and then don’t act on them, at best, at worse they make everything worse. How many new oil fields and wells are ‘in the pipeline’? Dozens.
We’re on a battlefield where some minor skirmishes have been relatively successful but the overall campaign is being lost. The EU has had some success in improving EU fish stocks but continues to oppose any measures aimed at reducing over-fishing in other parts of the world. Our people need tuna they say.
So, in Game of thrones’ style, who are the major actors and what in Hel’s name is going on? Not a lot really, a million skirmishes have simply led to a continuation of the status quo. A thousand protests have woken governments up to the menace of runaway global warming but they aren’t the only force on the field. Industrial lobbies and political factions have convinced many governments that, faced with this menace, they need to grab what’s left before someone else does. A bitter twist for the honest souls who present the latest research and, with tears in their eyes, watch as their warnings have the opposite effect and make things worse. The ‘general public’ another force on the battlefield don’t know, in the main, who to believe and spend time explaining to each other that someone, somewhere will sort it all out and business as usual will continue.
A pretty bleak analysis for sure, fortunately if we zoom out from the battlefield and the artillery of lies we can see something other things going on, some positive stuff.
Population
Back in the 1980’s the population explosion was a major concern. What we didn’t fully understand is that there are are underlying forces that are difficult to see and the population explosion which started with the Industrial Revolution is starting to wane, many countries are now in negative population growth. Panic on the battlefield as governments belated react to the ‘threat’ of a smaller population. Despite the various measures, cash, social advantages etc the declining fertility rate seems to be locked in.
If the fertility rates in many countries hadn’t declined we would have continued towards a global population so vast it’s difficult to see how we could have produced enough food, housing, energy etc. Even with the current projected population peak it’s going to be a struggle, if we don’t change our systems.
Sowing seeds
This person, after finishing their education, headed off to the big city to find a job and a flat. Two years later this person left their job and headed back to their village, bought some land and set up a market garden. This other person did much the same but set up a workshop to construct the types of tools and small machines needed for small scale efficient market gardens. Another person left the city and bought some land to start growing tea plants. Yet another one headed back home and set up a micro-brewery. Another set up as a blacksmith, another producing goats cheese, another producing lamb, another producing eggs, another building wooden houses and on and on. The same thing happened all over and these producers started to form local networks. I spoke to one person who told me they like going to the supermarket from time to time simply to push an empty trolley around and reflect on how they no longer need to buy anything sold there. The same planet, a different world.
This ‘movement’ is a global one and the number of people involved increase every day. The local networks become more and more developed with an ever increasing diversity of products.
This was the ‘social change’ dream of those of us who became Permaculture designers back in the 20th century. We spent our time sowing the seeds needed to bring about said social change and at the same time keeping our heads down, staying under the radar. Most of us had read and been influenced by Sun Tzu’s, The Art of War : “If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him.” Most of us had been activists fighting against the ‘machine’. Tiring, despiriting and see-saw, a victory today was actually a delayed defeat because a couple of years later the forest was cut down for the road anyway. So we quietly slipped away to start doing things differently, acting and not reacting.
Now, when I go around visiting, I can go from place to place feeling like I live in that different world. Like the rising tide the waters of change have spread out, there are more and more places that are a different and their number increases day by day. Imagine, if you like, two houses side by side. Inside the house on the left we find the status quo, people running around serving a forlorn logic that has destroyed so much already. In this house with it’s internal anti-social, ecocide logic it would be strange if the EU did ban the use of toxic chemicals used in everyday consumer products. The neighbouring house looks identical but inside a different logic prevails, toxic chemicals are simply not used nor anything else that harms lives and destroys the environment. This house is now so attractive that people are rushing to move in.
One of the characteristics of this ‘new world’ that is being built is a change in how people value time. The rhythm is slower, the pace is more tranquil, things get done but it’s all much more calm. One of the other things that strikes me the most is how skilled so many of these people are, a woman I know, in her mid-twenties is a great example of this, she learnt to design and make clothes, then she learnt carpentry and how to build houses, then she learnt how to weld and fabricate tools and small machines. ‘What’s next?’ I asked. ‘Beekeeping’ she replied.
It is interesting to note that when arriving in most of these villages or urban neighbourhoods, there isn’t a big sign up saying ‘Ecovillage’ or ‘Intentional community’ nor anything similar. Yet inside these wonderful places there is a different logic, one which encourages people to care for each other and their environment, one which values creativity and cooperation.
In the main this ‘movement’ is still under the radar and hasn’t been threatened by government’s, which is good as millions more people can change house and then get on helping with the other part of the strategic pincer movement which is to take control of local communities and central governments and move them away from the old outdated logic.