Creating a culture for climate change!
I once read that we didn't move out of the Stone Age because we ran out of stones! Surely then, moving on from a post industrial carbon-heavy age is a no brainer when everyday, we see the devastating results of climate change. What struck me whilst visiting a plethora of projects and people in Europe as part of my ‘Community Power Empowers' study was that once individuals had made up their minds to embrace cleaner living (usually as a result of excellent marketing and incentives by public authorities and energy companies) - it wasn't all that bad! There weren't (and aren't) the massive sacrifices that everyone is either scared of or in denial about. Led by intelligent strategic energy planning whilst embracing a large section of the population and enough hand-holding, people can really change how they think, how services operate, and in general, how people go about their day-to day lives! Why and how? Because at the end of the day the majority of us act like sheep - it's true, just attend any conference and you'll see it (and be one) for yourself.
Like the ‘slow food' movement, there has to be a ‘slowing up' movement to take stock of what's really important to allow our fragile little planet's human population survive on it. Economics shouldn't ever come before environment and society and sadly that will only be realised when every leader in the world wakes up! Whilst I won't go into all the Gaia theory stuff, it's worth us remembering that we're making a right mess of things. Basic standard grade geography classes tells us that the Amazon Rainforest are the lungs of the earth and without them - well you don't need much more that standard grade geography to work out where we'd be without air! The world over, land clearing for pasture by commercial and speculative interests, misguided government policies, inappropriate World Bank projects, and commercial exploitation of resources continues, and much faster than any real regeneration can take place.
So what's all this got to do with sheep - and why is acting like a sheep a good thing in my opinion? Well, my friend has a nice bike and they like cycling to work because it's more pleasant than being stuck in the car in lots of traffic - well I do too now. Oh, and I have another friend who thinks local organic veg tastes much better and supports local businesses - aaah, I might give that a try also. You see! Making intelligent decisions at all levels might then, at long last, rub off on everyone!
It's not, or shouldn't be about ‘them and us' - for example, the energy giants versus the one horse wonder wind turbine owner - there's room for everyone (oh and that's a bit like the biodiversity on our planet!).