Antidote to Catastrophe:
Cascade of Crises to Web of Solutions
I just finished Lester Brown’s newest iteration of the world situation: Plan B 3.0, and one word stands out: WOW. Lester Brown, of the World Watch Institute, is author of over a decade of annual “State of the World” reports, which I’ve been perusing over the years, including Plan B 2.0, his previous work of this magnitude. He is quite arguably, the best informed citizen on the planet about the statistics of world hunger, overpopulation, global warming, water scarcity, crop failure, air pollution, as well as renewable energy, reforestation, and every known aspect, both positive and negative, or our global challenges and their solutions. So, sight unseen, when this book was announced, I ordered several copies and have already given them away. (You can download it for free at http://www.earthpolicy.org)
What he describes, in painstaking detail, is a cascade of crises, intricately
connected, such that an increase in any one of them furthers the threat
of the others. For instance, he shows how the rise of global temperatures
not only changes sea level and threatens extinction to countless species
and scores of major coastal cities, but also makes it impossible, above
a certain temperature (104 F), to grow corn or rice, the staple foods of
the planet. In addition, rising temperatures create water scarcity, which
creates starvation and disease, then failed states, wars and terrorism,
to say nothing of hundreds of millions of environmental refugees. And while
these connections may not be new realizations, the compilation of this data
within a single volume paints the big picture in way that is crucial for
all to see.
What is needed at this unprecedented time is unprecedented solutions: to
understand that a cascade of crises leading to catastrophe, can only be
offset by a web of solutions, equally interconnected, potent, and global.
In the second half of the book, he shows how solutions are still possible,
if humanity acts quickly, and with a level of mobilization, equal to that
which was rallied for World War II. But this mobilization is toward solutions,
not destruction, toward saving a precious world before it’s too late,
and for having something other than a dying world to share with our grandchildren.
The second half of the book shows how the solution to social malaise,
such as addressing illiteracy, reproductive choice, health care, and world
hunger comes to a modest price tag of $77 billion. Environmental actions
of reforestation to prevent soil depletion and sequester carbon, restoring
rangelands, fisheries, biological diversity, and stabilizing water tables
– a mere $113 billion, for a grand total of $190 billion. With equal
attention to detail, he analyzes the effects of a wind industry on employment
and economic stimulation as well as lowering C02 levels, how increased education
lowers birth rates, how nations are already working to ban logging, conserve
water, plant trees, and having success environmentally, socially, and economically
at doing so.
His solutions are pragmatic, realistic, and achievable. But they fail to
address how these solutions need to be woven into a web of awakening so
profound that history has no equal. We know how to reduce energy consumption,
cut emissions, halt population, and lower consumption. If we can spend more
than double that price tag in Iraq, then we know the money can be found
as well – when we consider something a threat to our society. So how
do we make this happen?
It is said that there are no problems for which solutions do not exist.
What I propose here is a seven-leveled model for creating an equally potent
web of solutions, and mobilizing them as quickly as possible. For the technical
fixes, read Lester Brown, or any of the many books on renewable energy,
local economies, decentralization of food and manufacturing. But for creating
an awakening as fast as possible, here’s some ideas that can perhaps
get the ball rolling in the right direction:
Seven Point Plan:
1. Mediate the Media.
Mobilization of these plans will require public realization of their necessity.
The media doesn’t want to touch it – they would rather distract
us with stories of Paris Hilton or John Edwards’ haircut. If we were
under a terrorist attack, there isn’t a single network that wouldn’t
be broadcasting it night and day. These threats to our future security are
far greater than any terrorist attack could be and require an equal amount
of attention – not in terms of alarming, but of awakening. The media
doesn’t have to preach doom and gloom, because there are solutions
– they just need to be adopted swiftly and expansively.
What you can do: Call your local radio stations, write
letters to your editor or op-eds for the paper, hold town meetings, stage
marches, make videos, podcasts, blogs, and spread them widely.
2. Politics as Unusual.
Of more than 2000 questions asked to the candidates running for president,
only 3 questions were about global warming. While all the candidates give
lip service to it, how much do we know about their plans for addressing
it? Make our votes speak for the candidates who have awareness of these
issues. Set up departments to address these issues and staff them with people
who have a sense of the problem. Lobby for Leverage: If lobbyists can influence
policy, so can large groups of people. Give to your environmental agencies
that are going to Washington. Organize local groups into larger sectors,
craft proposals that address not niche markets, but niche preservation in
the natural world.
What you can do: Demand that these questions be answered
by local, state, and national representatives. Write your representatives,
call their offices. Be informed about voting records. Join the hundreds
of thousands of NGOs that are spontaneously forming to address these issues,
in what Paul Hawken calls the largest movement on the planet. To see a listing
of these organizations, go here: http://www.wiserearth.org
3. Legislate:
We need new laws passed about everything from vehicle emissions to wasteful
packaging. In Europe, grocery stores don’t handout bags at the checkout
– this simple act would save a million paper bags per hour, and the
trees that make them. Junk mail catalogs use 8 million trees a month. What
can you say about a culture that uses scarce resources to create things
that we know will be trashed, sight unseen, by about 90% of the recipients?
What you can do: Sign local petitions that put these laws
onto ballots. Better yet, spend an afternoon getting people to sign. Discover
what kind of apathy there is out there and figure out a way to break through
it. Stop junk mail and catalog mailings. Go to
http://www.catalogchoice.org.
4. Innovate:
We are an incredibly creative species, in love with technology and elegant
design. New technologies are enabling us to do more with less impact. We
can and must design for sustainability.
What you can do: Purchase from organizations that are designing
sustainable products, such as hybrid cars, solar and wind systems, energy
efficient appliances, green building products, recyclable packaging. Buy
local products and food when possible. (the average grocery item at a retail
store travels over 1000 miles to get there.) Use your own creativity to
find ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Collaborate with others to find
solutions.
5. Energize the economy.
Prior to the Italian Renaissance, Europe was at an economic low and one
third of the population had died from the plague. Those with money decided
to invest in art – and creativity soared. Today’s stock market
is falling. People are drawing their money out of it in fear. Unemployment
is rising. Where’s that money going to go? What shall we do with our
time? Can we reinvest our money in that which is sustainable? Can we use
our free time to volunteer our efforts? Can we develop local economies that
trade for goods that don’t have to be shipped by oil across large
distances?
What you can do: If you have money, invest in sustainable
companies – companies that are part of the solution, not part of the
problem. If you have time, donate it to a cause that touches your heart.
Be active. Get involved.
6. Education:
Media reaches the public, but schools everywhere need to teach sustainable
ways to every student, from elementary school to universities.
What you can do: Read Plan B 3.0. Design a course and offer
it. Contact your school board and see about implementing a parent’s
teach-in on these issues. If you work in the school system, get students
involved in teaching each other. Make it “hip” to be green.
7. Visualize, Organize, Vitalize, Realize.
We know that consciousness creates, vision vitalizes, and conversation catalyzes.
If you can see something better, share it with others. Set up dialogs, talk
to people standing next to you in line, on the bus, on airplanes. Break
the boundaries of your own behavior.
What you can do: Go on a vision quest. Hold a group visioning
ceremony. Vitalize your visions by imagining them frequently. Join with
others in co-creating a vision for your local environment, talk about these
issues, and help others realize what’s at stake, and how it is possible
to handle it.
These seven points don’t deal with the deeper issues of our psychological
malaise, nor does Plan B 3.0. That’s a different story, and if you
are interested in how to get to our wholeness as a culture, see Waking the
Global Heart: Humanity’s Rite of Passage from the Love of Power to
the Power of Love. Suffice it to say that our own healing as citizens in
the global community contributes to the overall “upwising” in
consciousness, as Swami Beyondananda so cleverly states. Perhaps that is
Plan C, for without healing the underlying issues, these things will be
but temporary solutions. However, our personal healing is in vain if civilization
collapses. If we cannot stop these impending crises, there is nothing but
our personal vanity to blame. First we stop the bleeding, then we address
the slaughter.
Complex problems require complex solutions. SEED magazine named 2008 as
the year that “reality begins to sink in.” Let it also be the
year that we mobilize our efforts toward creating a better reality –
one we know is possible. It’s up to us. If we don’t do it, others
won’t have a chance.
Please forward this article freely.
Anodea Judith