Responding to climate change

(One fellow considering how we should respond to our human induced changing climate had these thoughts - )

   

     I find the whole issue of appropriate response to changing climate a complicated one but this perhaps doesn't have to be the case. 

   One of the main problems that appears to me is that we are expected to tackle the problem ourselves as individuals not because we want to but because we should. We are then left as individuals working out what size environmental footprint is acceptable which if the quest for minimal impact is taken to its logical conclusion leaves us as individuals wondering about our very existence.

   This isn't helpful and probably not even very productive. This sort of 'we must because we should' approach is probably best coming from a concept of what society in general describes as acceptable wether that be through elected bodies or from a general consensus of the population. I'm not suggesting individuals don't have personal ethical standards but that this is often not a main driver of everyday decisions in modern Australian culture. 

    As individuals we are driven by what we want to do and strive to those ends. If a social climate prevailed where individuals wanted to live in a more sustainable way then people would strive to do so, the breaks would be 'off' so to speak and individuals would be heading to a different set of goal posts. I am quite positive that we have the knowledge, equipment and resources for such a change the only change required being a social one. 

    As an individual I don't want to stop doing the things I enjoy, who does? I like flying, riding motorbikes, driving in air conditioned comfort, eating out and all those other things so for me the best solution is to either make these things more efficient with minimal pollution and energy input or give me something else just as exciting as a substitute. Our job as people advocating change is perhaps simply to describe that new world.