Every time I look at a news outlet I am horrified by what’s going on in Victoria. Wild fires destroying whole communities and leaving hundreds of people dead – this is incredible and deeply disturbing. I truly hope that the local police are wrong, and these fires weren’t deliberately lit. If this was all the result of a thoughtless – let alone malicious – action by a person, I will be even more upset than I already am.
Of course, I can’t help but view these events through the lens of global climate change. While it is impossible to say something simplistic like “global warming caused these fires”, it is entirely true that climate change is shifting the ecological balance so events like this will be more likely. See also the floods elsewhere in Australia; more extreme events like this are our shared future.
I still strongly advocate personal change and personal responsibility for one’s carbon footprint, but it is increasingly clear that there isn’t time for leadership to grow from the grassroots. There needs to be a political shift, and a rapid one. Paradoxically, I think that might best be achieved by personal change and personal responsibility. We don’t have time to create new leaders out of our communities, but if we change the communities around our leaders then hopefully they will take the hint.
Ethel bounced this link at me the other day – the Toronto Star writing on the exact field I spent the last 18 months working on for my masters, about deploying social norms to facilitate change. Notably, that linked to Canada’s One Million Acts of Green network, which came on the scene only 3 months ago and has already achieved its target. This is not an impossible task; we can change in time to avoid disaster. But we all need to take some responsibility, more than we currently have, even folk like me who already flatter themselves with their green credentials.
That’s kind of intimidating, but it’s empowering too. Back in the 80s when I was a schoolkid and nuclear war was the unspoken baseline fear under all our media, all our politics? That was worse, because all we could do was look at the lines on the maps and pray. This time we can do much more. And because of that, we have to.