Today is Blog Action Day, a movement that brings together bloggers, no matter what subject they cover, to create awareness of a cause by all writing about it on the same day. This year’s focus is climate change.
This article interrupts a series of blog posts I’ve been publishing on creating positive change in your life. It’s interesting timing given the issue of reducing climate change may be the one greatest change we all have a vested interest in making, yet presently we struggle to make shifts significant enough to save us from what looks like a bleak future, depending on what predictive models you trust.
Writing the series on change made me realize an intriguing and at times contradictory relationship between changes that the individual can make, how those changes impact overall change as a society and the motivations behind change in the first place.
My article series on change focused on your favorite subject – you. I agree with you, my favorite subject is me too. Hence we tend to make decisions to change very much based on what we want as individuals.
Collectively, all our individual decisions dictate what we choose as a society. If enough of us adopt a change, it becomes part of our culture and who we are as a people. This is why the power to change things on a global scale really does rest in the hands of the individual.
The impact of climate change presents some pretty uncomfortable scenarios, many that most human beings would prefer to avoid if possible.
Although not everyone agrees on the science, simply looking at some of the physical manifestations around us (like the weather) is enough to convince me that something is up. I have a feeling we’re all walking a path that can only lead to major disruption of what we take for granted today (things like ease of access to food, water, electricity, transportation), not to mention all the wonders that are at risk in nature and animal life.
Something needs to be done, but who’s going to do it?
How Can We Be So Unresponsive?
Given the size of this issue (we are talking about the entire planet), it can be daunting as an individual to fathom what type of change is necessary to “save us”. The problem is complex and the implications so widespread that we can never hope to get a grasp of what exactly is going to happen, but one thing is clear – we need an adjustment of the entire global consciousness if we are to solve this suite of issues.
I began thinking how exactly this level of change is likely to happen. What’s the most likely scenario for us as a race to react to what’s happening?
Since I’ve been writing about change I’ve realized that behind every big change is a process of incremental changes. It’s the little adjustments along the way that take us to the big outcomes.
Unfortunately, in the case of changes like climate change, we don’t react to the problem until it has had a dramatic impact on us. Because of this, we may need to suffer before we do something significant and react collectively to the idea that the world as we run it today, is not sustainable. By the time we realize that we need to all adjust our behavior and shift our motivation, it will be too late, the inertia will be too great to reverse or even reduce very quickly. It’s going to be rocky before it becomes smooth again.
Most of us make changes to our lives only when there is a stimulus strong enough to cause us to react. If there’s no direct agitation that we personally feel, we tend to go with the flow and do whatever the majority does. The herd mentality strikes again.
In the case of climate change, I don’t have faith that enough individuals will force a shift in behaviors great enough to change us, until something really significant happens.
In other words, it’s going to take the threat of realizing or even experiencing that you won’t be able to just turn on a tap and have water appear. The garbage you produce won’t just magically disappear once a week, buried somewhere hidden away where you never see it. You won’t be able to just catch a plane to visit another country. The weather will be so severe that for periods of collectively many months every year, being outside simple won’t be an option.
Everyone will feel the impact so significantly, that finally we will be motivated to make changes. It’s a shame that it may have to go this far for us to decide to do something about it. This may not happen in my lifetime of course, but that doesn’t mean anyone alive today should be comfortable opting-out of responsibility. This is a human-race problem and I for one care about my people.
The one silver lining in this scenario, as I see it, is a huge raising in global consciousness and a shift in priorities towards much more sustainable and humane practices.
The world operates on polarities. When really bad things happen to you, your perspective on life shifts dramatically. Although your physical world may not be as rosy, you personally experience major growth – you “raise your consciousness” and see the world in a different way.
When this happens to many people at the same time due to a major tragedy, our entire society changes, emerging from the despair with an inner power and peace that wasn’t present before. We experience a mass internal realignment, advancing our culture towards a more functional, equal, sustainable and peaceful society.
From the seeds of suffering is born enlightenment.
Don’t Take What You Have For Granted
Of course I have no idea if these situations will eventuate, but I do know that human nature is very complacent.
As long as you don’t directly suffer, you don’t worry too much about all the big issues and focus more on what little things are bothering you or how you can get your next fix of self gratification. Let the politicians and the activists worry about the implications of climate change. As long as I get my beer, weekends, restaurants, cafes, cars, TV, sex, drugs, music, mobile phones and of course – the Internet, I’m good.
That’s a dangerous attitude and it needs to be changed.
Don’t live in fear of what you might loose, but don’t be ignorant either. Understand the reality of how you live today and what behaviors contribute to climate change and start making smart choices based on what you value in your life.
This is about everyone – and everyone includes you. Unless you want the shock of your life, it’s important that you start caring now, rather than just as the disaster strikes. This is your problem too, and although you shouldn’t let the burden depress you, and accept that you’re not perfect, it is important you start acting less like an individual, and more like a part of a collective species that makes one hell of a large footprint on this earth.
Yaro Starak
Shifting
Get your bonus copy of my book
“How To Start An Internet Business
& Make Your First $1,000 Online”
Download Here
