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Avert Climate Disaster?

I recently finished Bill Gates new book, How To Avoid A Climate Disaster. It was full of thoughtful insights with up-to-date numbers and charts. Bill Gates filled his time in 2020 researching and writing this book. It is a treatise designed to get us into action. He wants to compel us to do something, not waiting for the other guy to get things going. Be an early adopter.

I agree with it all: we need to choose zero carbon alternatives; we need to be aware of corporate practices and let them know with your wallets what we will and won’t accept.

The book, though, seems to be written for Americans when Americans are making bad climate action decisions: leaving the Paris Agreement, gutting the Environment Protection Agency. Gates makes his strongest case for taking action politically with votes and advocacy. It all makes good sense, even if you are not American. We are not moving the needle fast enough. We need policies to force change. Yes, governments can help us decide which lane we are driving in. I think, though, in addition to a top-down approach–laws, regulations, and a push for more innovative research and development, we need grassroots actions. It is not a footnote to decide to energy conservation in your home or walk to the store instead of driving. We need to ensure that ecologically sustainable options are at the forefront of our decisions. Each step is one step closer and each conversation helps keep this crisis on the front page.

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Re-Reading Voluntary Simplicity

As I sorted through the books on my too-full shelves, I discovered a very yellowed, stiff book, Voluntary Simplicity. It cracked as I opened it to the first chapter.

I was going through my books to see which ones contained old information that new research invalidates. Those would go in the recycle pile. With all the research on climate change, environmental hazards and the destructive nature of the consumerist culture, this book seemed like old news.

Then I read the first paragraph:

The world is profoundly changing, that much seems clear. We have entered a time of great uncertainty that extends from local to global scale. We are forced by pressing circumstances to ask difficult questions about the way we live our lives: Will my present way of life still be workable when my children go up? How might their lives, and my own, be different? Am I satisfied with my work? Does my work contribute to the well-being of others–or is it just a source of income? How much income do I really require? Require for what? How much of my consumption adds to the clutter and complexity of my life rather than to my satisfaction? How does my level and pattern of consumption affect other people and the environment? …. Am I missing much of the richness of life by being preoccupied with the search for social status and consumer goods? What is my purpose in life? How am I to take charge of my life?1

It feels like the more things change, the more things stay the same. We have advanced so far in so many ways yet we are still asking the same questions about how we live in the world, perhaps even more urgently.

I could see this stall as a sign that hope for a better future is a pipe dream. Or I could see this as, at least, we are still asking. When we keep the questions in our mind, the answers can be found.

Today, I choose the later.

silhouette of mountains
Photo by Simon Berger on Pexels.com
  1. Elgin, Duane. Voluntary Simplicity: An Ecological Lifestyle that Promotes Persona & Social Renewal. Bantam Book, 1981. Page 1.