What now? are we screwed or not?

By Waveney Warth

The task of humans in the 21st Century is to shift the momentum of 50,000 years of human history from growth to balance

​Can we stop climate change? 

Photo credit: Parnell Gallery, Auckland NZ. 

The last blog, “Wait, Why are we here?" fascinating as I found it, left us hanging as it offered a summary of our situation – without attempting a prognosis.  To recap, our situation, (underlying whatever sort of eco problem you’d like to highlight) is that we are catastrophically too dominant on the planet.  Therefore, the task of humans in the 21st Century is to shift the momentum of 50,000 years of human history from growth to balance.  

So what now? If that is what we have to achieve, are we screwed or not?  This is the topic of this blog and the conversation Tim and I dig into the second half of the How to Save the World episode, "Why are we here?" 
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Can we switch from growth to balance?

If changing the momentum of human history is possible, it doesn't sound easy.  It goes against all our biological drivers; its beyond the mandate of government legislation for sure, and it doesn't sound like the kind of task well suited to technology (in kind of the same way we wouldn't expect technology to save our marriages).

Albert Einstein famously said “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”. To turn the ship before we hit the iceberg, we have to pull one out of the box. But how can we have different thinking when all our ideas on how we might think differently are from the brains stuck in the old operating system?   

What about the collective power of small action? Well, yes, but if we start biking or buying local without understanding the ultimate goal it’s like setting off to summit Everest thinking that you are jumping out the car to quickly stretch your legs.  If that happens you’d be perilously under prepared – and you’d whine a lot. 

Our goal goes against the momentum of life on earth to grow whenever possible: to self-limit our species in order to protect our long term survival.   Some would say it can’t be done….others would say, ...oh for goodness sake?! Really?!
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SO big I missed it

Ever failed to see something because it was too big? Like not being able to see to the back of the fridge because of all the clutter, and then realising the thing you are after IS right in front of your face.  Well…this is kind of the same. ​We actually have hundreds of longitudinal case studies, many spanning centuries, of entire civilisations that have already cracked this.  If this comes as a surprise, it might be because, you, like me, come from a western cultural perspective and when you came across the “data” you didn’t see it for what it was.

Globally we actually have thousands of examples of societies that have already successfully made the transition to "self-limitation" hundreds or thousands of years ago when they faced the same issues (that humanity now faces on global scale) on regional or continental scales.   That’s why locally here in Aotearoa te Ao Māori  - the Māori world view is so important to our survival. Te Ao Māori, is one example of many, of humans having successfully 'curved their enthusiasm' to avoid collapse and voluntarily live in balance with the world so that it can continue to sustain us.   (Yet we Pākehā can get the wrong end of the stick ay and sometimes think we are ones that have figured it all out.)
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Another stand out is the Pachamama Alliance, started by Amazon indigenous communities under threat. They needed the help of wealthy savvy westerners to save their communities from bulldozers but they knew right from the start that they could gift something just as valuable in return, so they started the Alliance, which has been epically successful, to share their world view. They say, “With roots deep in the Amazon rainforest, our programs integrate indigenous wisdom with modern knowledge to support personal, and collective, transformation that is the catalyst to bringing forth an environmentally sustainable… planet.”. They have courses and all sorts of online resources and opportunites, get involved here, www.pachamama.org

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​This isn’t about idealising. Not all indigenous societies find balance.  Which is soooooo fascinating. There are two categories of societies that didn’t (or haven’t so far): The first category is “Societies-that-collapsed” and literally haven’t survived to tell the tale; and second category is our own society, which is now global as it continues to grow and consume.  Jarred Diamond in his classic book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed contends that our future is either “transition to balance” or collapse.  That’s it. 
Its’ a great read for anyone wanting to learn more about the well-trodden pathways to successfully avoiding collapse. 

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Idealism v realism

Far from utopian idealism, curbing ourselves is actually part of being human; a cornerstone of our success as a species. It’s basically how we always get what we want.  Toddlers snatch. Grown-ups share. 

I say this to start out How to Save the World podcast’s Season 2 with well-founded hope, and offer a guiding star that’s simple…but not easy. I think that “simple but not easy” tension is where it’s at: On the one hand we need to know our goal isn’t complex and it’s not new territory. Because its obtainable and simple we have the hope to take a step and start out.  On the other hand grasping the barriers  is important because this gives us the tenacity we need to reach our destination.  Regardless if you are on the left or the right, its not easy to understand how life without economic growth or profit maximisation works when its really all we know.  

​But back to to the bubbling positivity, lets not forget the permaculture saying "the problem is the solution."  If we do succeed in shifting our momentum, the very things that got us into this (our two super powers: out of the ball park smart and oil)  are the very same things that could get us out - especially the smart bit. 
​Charles Eisenstein, a really good, unique western thinker who is able to reframe the way we see things, puts it this way in his 2013 book The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible..  

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Every member of the ecosystem strengthens the whole, e.g. the top predator, when removed, has a massive harmful effect on the whole ecosystem.  We can think of each contribution as a gift.  We are no different, we have a gift that can make the ecosystem stronger and better...but we aren’t using our powers for good.