Friendly Planet

I was involved in the launch of a new campaign group on Sunday.

Borrowed Planet is a group of parents in Leeds who are taking action to stop runaway climate change.  We've only just set up, so we don't know exactly what we'll do yet, but it's likely to be a mix of campaigning and practical action.  The parents angle is tied into the fact that by the time our kids are old enough to take action to stop climate change, it might be too late.  We also want to try to find ways to campaign and act which are do-able for families - and of course, inform our children too so they can take action themselves.

www.flickr.com Go to BorrowedPlanet's photostream

We launched with a screening of The Age of Stupid. 

It's not a whole big bundle of laughs.  The film looks back from 2055 and asks the question "Why didn't we do something about climate change when we had the chance?"  I can't remember all the details, but the key message is that there is a window - up til 2015 -  when we've got a chance to stabilise global temperature rises.  If we get to 2015 and we haven't made big advances, then, many scientists believe, we'll have reached a tipping point, and to be frank, we're pretty much doomed.  

We'd borrowed the film to watch at home the night before.  I fell asleep.  Not because I found the film boring, but because I lead a life where I run round like a nutcase trying to earn money, make a difference and also have time to be a good dad, husband and friend.  So my 10pm on a Saturday night I'm out for the count.

I'm no more busy than most of us.  But if there's a message I took from the film, it's that my lifestyle has to change.  And, of course, the lifestyle of most of the rest of you too.  The predictions (mainstream ones, not from cranks) regarding climate change are just too massive to take on board.  It'll affect me in my lifetime, and Francis moreso.  

Another of the challenges is that the stuff that people like me do currently isn't nearly enough.  I'm used to feeling quite good about the fact that I cycle a fair bit, grow bits of veg, buy organic meat etc etc.  But the changes that I'll need to make in my lifestyle are far more profound than that.  If the country needs to cut emissions by 80%, that means that I have to do something along those lines too.  That's more profound than using my buying power (courtesy of working too hard) to purchase an expensive energy saving fridge from John Lewis.  

After the film the families who set up the group came back to our house for a meal.  That, needless to say, was a much nicer way to spend a Sunday afternoon than sitting in a church hall watching a depressing film.  Of course, I'm so pleased that I've seen the film as I think it's given me the kick up the backside that I needed to start to engage with the climate change issue.  But still, I was pleased we didn't all just go home  - I for one was feeling a bit glum.   

I think I'm fairly typical in my reluctance to engage (I wasn't convinced about helping to set up the group for starters).  It's such an enormous issue - and getting a critical mass of people engaged will be the most pressing challenge of our times.  Which is why I think the social after the film was important.  This isn't something we're going to solve alone.  It's something we may solve by acting together and creating a grassroots, mass movement. 

For us, that starts with us as a family - and then us as a group of friends.  And then each of us may try to bring in our wider group of friends.  And if other people are doing the same, then we may create the kind of mass movement that will make a difference.  Because, let's face it, politicians aren't going to get us out of this mess - and, whilst technology may help, it won't sort things out on it's own.

Margaret Mead's famous quote is worth repeating here:  

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed it's the only thing that ever has."

We won't change the world on our own, but I'd say it's only human-scale groups of people, getting together and taking action the world over, who will give us a chance of stopping runaway climate change.  

Comments

[Edward]

My best wishes for this new venture - as Mead alludes to; it's the getting up and doing somehting about it that brings change in the end.