For you?

Doing something about climate change:

• It is not up to the poor who spent days scavenging waste in abominable conditions “rich” countries dumped in their front yard;

• It’s not up to the mother of 3 with a minimum wage such that she can barely make ends meet at the end of the month, takes on an extra job in the week-ends and never goes on holiday. A family for which a price hike in basic necessities like water or energy of a few Euro pose a big headache;

• It is not up to the girl that has to walk 10 miles to get some water from a well and bring it back “home” (another 10 mile walk) in the afternoon, missing school, education;

• It is not the boy who washes the windscreen in between 2 red traffic lights on a crossroad in a by smog polluted dirty city;

• It is not up to the economic refugee who craves for a better life somewhere and now sleeps under a tree next to a highway having indebted his whole village which he left paying human traffickers;

• It is not up to the beggar who annoys you each day when you make that turn during your short walk from the subway to your air conditioned office.

Doing something about climate change is up to:

• We the people who can read this text;

• We the people who enjoy or enjoyed education;

• We the people who live in a house of our own, have access to good food, medical support;

• We the people who enjoy traveling, theatre, sports, use numerous ICT applications;

• We the people who can afford to skip school and go to a climate manifestation by train;

• We the people who are very aware of our impact and drive SUV’s;

• We the people who drive cars, run airco’s, consume lots and lots of energy in all its forms;

• We the people who live in a bubble of luxury;

• We the people who go on short and longer holidays each vacation Season;

• We the people of whom most of us don’t have no clue what real life for most people on Earth means;

• We the people who would be called “rich” by 80% of worlds’ population….

Make the climate’s problem your problem, your challenge…

Decide…get involved…spread the word…talk with your friends…reduce your footprint…easily said, but very difficult to do …. try to start to change your daily behavior in small steps…

So your life style matters and that you can change…

Later more on that, in the next post we’ll look at some guiding principles, issues of cultural relativism, the nature of man and some ideas to be made common good.

The implementation of the proposed measures would significantly increase the opportunity to live a better life for 80% of the world population whereas 20% of the world population will probably perceive all of these proposals as “not good” to “not good at all” because it will be a threat to their current “standard of living”. 

That’s a short term perspective.

In that case imagine what will become of our standard of living, the world economy & the financial system once affected & disrupted by 1 billion displaced people, a rising sea level and extreme weather conditions making havoc with our private & public infrastructures.

To all those not fully awake yet we can only say:

“If you think the economy is more important than the environment, try holding your breath while counting your money.”

(Professor Guy McPherson, School of Natural Resources, University of Arizona)