Considering the "five minute life"

 Any worthwhile response to climate change is so disruptive to a developed nation’s lifestyle that few of us are mentally, emotionally or physically equipped to deal with the implications.

Although those same demands appear overwhelming and so impossible, they will, within my lifetime or certainly that of my children and indeed my grandchildren, become a consequence with which we will have to deal.



The City of Greater
Shepparton's Mayor,
Cr Michael Pollan.



Rather than be hurled unprepared into a cauldron of troubles (that sounds somewhat dramatic, but climate change, at its extremes, is exactly that), we need to think about, and discuss, our response to the unfolding changes.

The intricacies of impending distortions to the world’s weather are so byzantine and produce figures, graphs and computations equally tortuous that interpretation by the uninitiated is almost impossible, even the experienced are sometimes confused.

That, however, does not exclude us from our responsibility of doing all we can to understand what is happening and grasping even a portion of that, and so responding in an adequate and timely fashion.

Within that, it is worth noting, that composition of those figures pointing to such sweeping a human tragedy that is climate change are so knotty that openings are forever appearing through which doubters can legitimately join the conversation.

The City of Greater Shepparton’s Mayor, Cr Michael Pollan, declares himself, along with many farmers he deals with, as a doubter.

Cr Pollan stands with; it seems, with the British economist, the late John Maynard Keynes, who said “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”

In waiting for the facts about climate change to actually alter, Cr Pollan has missed that difference in our climate. He has been looking, but obviously in all the wrong places and not hard enough as the facts about earth’s deteriorating climate are obvious.

Beneath the Wisteria is about considering and pondering what it is we do on response to the sweeping difficulties and within that response rests a significant responsibility for City of Greater Shepparton and by default Cr Pollan.



John Maynard Keynes



Obviously that first response is personal with people preparing themselves emotionally and physically for the undoubted differences ahead, but then in a broader sense, and one which probably be more effective, governments at all levels need to create a dynamic in each of the constituencies that will enable the creation  of more resilient communities.

At the local level that begins with town planning decisions made through an understanding and agreement that our future is going to be significantly different in all respects, particularly with the availability of and use of energy.

Councils such as that which Cr Pollan leads should be working toward the establishment of a “five minute life” for all their constituents; meaning that most of what people need on a day-to-day basis, that is food, various services, work, recreation and other social needs, are all within an easy five minute walk or cycle.

The ongoing confusion between our wants and our needs is one of the key reasons for climate change.