The Copenhagen Climate Talks – the 15 th conference of all the parties of the UNFCC – have now come to a close.
The hope was that the gathered world leaders and politicians would have created a legally binding deal that would see global emissions of greenhouse gas fall drastically as the science demanded, limiting the extent of climate change already upon us.
But that’s what it was – a hope. The Copenhagen Accord merely expresses that the leaders of the world accept that climate change should be limited to below 2 degrees Celsius, but provides no action or commitment to do so.
Twenty years of presenting the science to politicians, 2 years working towards this conference, 2 weeks negotiating the text, and all that has been achieved is a disputed piece of paper claiming that our leaders would like to see climate chaos limited, but not enough to actually put anything on the line.
Meanwhile, apathy grips the majority of those not lobbying the leaders for change, and consumerist society and industrial civilisation continue to wreak their path of destruction unabated.
Despite the best efforts of the environmental and social justice movements, we seem to be the closest we’ve ever been to the brink of defeat.
Why?
For years the strategy of those in the movement has been that if we can convince the public, sceptics and politicians of the great destruction being wrought on people and planet, then they’ll automatically support action to stop it. But even with the majority believing that global warming is anthropogenic, knowing about the suffering and poverty of the third world and all the injustices present in our society , this has not happened. After years of campaigning, of laying out the facts and science, of presenting the unfolding tragedy of climate change, we’ve finally reached the core of the crisis.
Most people now know and accept the science. They know what the future holds if they don’t act. They know the suffering that grips and will tighten its grip on humanity. And they don’t care.
It can be shrugged off, ignored and forgotten about. All they really care about is themselves, and they reckon they’ll be fine. Compassion for those suffering and being destroyed in their name is suppressed. They simply don’t care.
And that’s the problem.
This is why the emerging crisis has occurred, this is why the environment has continually been trashed, this is why injustice continues and grows at an ever increasing pace. It’s because society as a whole doesn’t care. The environmental and social crises enveloping humanity is a crisis of compassion, not of some specific technologies, countries or policies. There is no doubt these are factors in the crisis, contributing to and accelerating it, but the true source is psychological.
Climate chaos, social injustice, tyranny and oppression are merely symptoms of a deeper psychological crisis at the heart of civilisation.
That is not to say that each individual is inherently heartless or a monster, and that it is their fault they are like that.
Many people are capable of great acts of compassion, selflessness and generosity. But each and every one of us has been taught and imbued with the collective values of society and civilisation, and that collective story is one based on fear, selfishness and greed.
Consumerism marks the perfection of this social ideal, but it has existed as long as civilisation itself, indeed it was the necessary conditions that allowed the first empires to grow in the first place.
Each of us has been indirectly taught and indoctrinated to accept that the happiness of our self is prime, that we are all separate and different from each other and everything else, and that to show compassion and kindness is to be weak. But it is this selfishness and this lack of compassion that drives our collective ability to be able to allow the perpetuation of environmental and social injustice, and led to their creation in the first the place.
It is no understatement to say that this central story of our society and civilisation will ultimately lead to the destruction of humanity and its home, consigning billions to chronic suffering in the process.
Once we can see and grasp this, it is imperative to act. There is no use in blaming ourselves for holding this unspoken agreement – it was not our fault or our parents fault to accept the only version of reality presented and taught to us.
Forgive yourself of the past.
But once we realise what is happening we bear responsibility for the consequences of our implicit support of this agreement. And if we see those consequences as unacceptable, we must decide to act as a result.
But what to do?
We seek the big, effective and seemingly magical solutions and silver-bullets. But there is no way to somehow make everyone adopt a now societal foundation and make everyone spontaneously more compassionate, breaking millennia of civilised dogma in the short time available to us.
The only thing we can definitely change is ourselves and how we interact with those around us .
- We must act with compassion and cultivate selflessness in our own lives, using the ancient practice of mindfulness for example, in order to help change the default setting of fear and selfishness and effect all who we interact with in our lives with this new story.
- We must create a new central story for our society that holds up selflessness, compassion and harmony over our differences.
But many will say this is not nearly enough, that this is such a small action as to be insignificant and that we don’t have enough time to change the established dogma. And to them I say – what else can we do?
Do we only fight for and do what is right if we can be sure of winning?
Do we not do it anyway even if our doom seems assured?
Or do we do it anyway as the only responsible, noble and compassionate path available, even if defeat stares us in the face?
I choose to fight for justice anyway, armed with the seeds of compassion and justice.
And we do not only just create this new story for society and act accordingly; we also create the practical foundations for this new more responsible society too.
There are already many activists creating and helping local community groups, building community gardens informed by the principles of Permaculture , starting urban allotments, supporting community supported agriculture projects in the country, creating their own renewable (and thus independent) energy supplies , using local wild food and foraging, building local stable-state economies and currencies, working in workers co-ops, buying food through food co-ops, encouraging local and freely accessible culture and improving their neighbourhoods, for example.
Once enough of these local projects exist and begin to overlap, a network of alternatives to mainstream society can be created, building local resilience and allowing people to live more independently of civilisation and thus lay the foundations of this new society.
Combined with the new societal story, this network of local activism can become a phoenix to emerge from the decaying edifice of the old society.
This is nothing less than mass cultural civil disobedience , a cultural insurrection against consumerism, globalisation and industrial civilisation.
There are no leaders of this movement, no governing bodies or organisations to guide it; disorganisation is our strength, preventing the corruption and inaction that all bureaucracies breed.
I do not wish to issue a list of ‘things you should do’ or a specific prescription for your own actions, but I find a simple collection of ideas can help to confirm that I’m heading in the right direction:
- Reconnect with nature and our local landscape
- Reconnect with our skills and practical potential
- Reconnect with our selves, our true values and our compassion
- Reconnect with our local community
- Help others Reconnect by undermining the tools of disconnection that keep us disconnected (see Keith Farnish’s excellent work on this)
Under these titles the actions needed to create this new society and dismantle civilisation can be found.
Occasionally when I despair at the state of the world and how little I feel I can do in response, I often return to this list and see what I’m doing that work towards these goals, and this can help reconfirm the power and potential of what we’re doing.
And what will we be working against?
With the failure of efforts to curb climate change, the nation-states of the world will begin to put themselves first, begin to fortify their borders and increase internal policing to cope with the chaos from food shortages, refugees and disasters.
Tensions will grow between countries over ever scarcer resources such as water, leading to inevitable armed strife.
At home, governments will become more oppressive in order to cope, racism and nationalism will surge and extremists will begin to agitate.
Eventually, the traditional nation-state itself will break down, but in the meantime it will fight on to the death.
So we’re not just moving against the selfishness and greed that created the crises facing us, we’re also up against the trashing death throes of civilisation and the fascism and chaos it will spawn. We must be the torchbearers of a better way of doing things through dark times.
So the call is simple. You’ve seen the politicians fail. You’ve seen the campaigners fail. You’ve seen industrial civilisation fail.
So now it’s up to us.
Reconnect with nature, your practical potential, your self, your community and help others reconnect; practice compassion and mindfulness, assist or start in any project that can help achieve these aims, and do it now.
The time for hope in the existing system is over – it and its flawed story has proved itself to be broken.
The severity of the crisis demands we act now, and that we abandon the politicians and leaders who promised so much yet delivered so little. Together we can create the compassionate, responsible and just society we’ve been seeking for so long. The call is simple – do it yourself – it’s the only sane and compassionate thing left to do.