Climate activism is unlocking political awareness
Climate awareness is becoming connected to climate action in many different spheres. The consciousness of young people, being aware and frustrated led to the emergence of a new movement. Greta became its voice and face. She resonated with the hearts of many: millions stopped “functioning” in the system and went striking during Fridays for the Future, Global Climate strikes or Extinction Rebellion waves.
A self-reinforcing dynamic has started. The EU Parliament recently declared “Climate Emergency” after many cities had done it. A sign that large-scale political awareness and will to take real climate action is building.
The climate emergency “exit door” is opening
Which gives hope, as the political domain with its regulations and subsidies can completely redesign the “architecture” of our society. By setting new priorities – like putting the quality of all life at the centre of societal targets, instead of economic interests. It feels like the door to enter a new society is opening.
What is behind the door though? So far the main voice of the climate debate has been focussed on “stopping emission”, “fighting climate change”, “rebelling against extinction”. But if policymakers say: “Yes, we are hearing you, we as well want to change”, towards what are we changing? What is the transformation which we are seeking?
Which zero-net-carbon emission World do we want?
A sustainable net-zero-emission, circular, society, for instance, can be thought of in many different ways. If we focus only on reducing emissions we may completely switch to solar panels and windmills, deploy CO2 soaking machines, CO2 storing technologies, grow food indoors with aquaponic technology and print 3D micro-nutrients to complement our diet.
We may spend most of our time online, with digital friends, share all of our belongings in a highly efficient and anonymous all-inclusive sharing system, have aesthetic 3D projections of plants in our households. We may use air-filtering masks to avoid pollution when going outdoors and conditioned clothes to survive extreme heatwaves.
We would achieve the goal of being carbon-neutral, but would this be the World we dream to live in? Would it be a fair and just society? Would the quality of life be improved? Would we spend most of our time working to sustain ourselves? How would the social connections between people develop? Would there be more joy, peace and laughter?
Would we have access to the outdoors? Could we still observe the leaves of the trees dancing, moved by the wind? Would we listen to birds singing or observe butterflies and flowers? Would we have the pleasure of walking in the woods and swimming in the lakes? Are these also part of net-zero-carbon emission future?
Behind the climate emergency “exit door” we face our ability to imagine the future
We should be aware: we will drive changes towards what we can imagine. If we only focus on reaching urgent CO2 targets, we may be blind to everything that is around. We may wear thick glasses, focussing on the numbers, whilst not seeing the implications of our actions on the whole system.
What we can do is to use the climate emergency and political will as an opportunity to ask questions that really matter to us. What does it mean to live a good life? What does it feel like? What will we be proud of at the end of our lives? How would living on a beautiful planet filled with life look like?
High chances are that if we focus on what truly matters to all of us we will end up with solutions, practices and lifestyles solving the climate crisis while spreading more joy, peace and love in the World.
We may be stuck in reproducing the same problems we are trying to solve
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
By focussing on CO2 we also face another problem: We may slip into rationality, logic-driven, quantifiable and reductionist mindset to come up with solutions. We may select solutions based on quantifiable CO2 emissions and financial viability. Simplifying a complex system to a linear model.
A complex system responds to changes in unpredictable and nonlinear ways. We may keep the same myopic view that created the problems we are in, while through our solutions we create new, more extreme problems.
Including the heart is about broadening our perspective and vision of the future
A way to change our way of thinking is to consciously include more elements, senses and dimensions in our perception. By inviting intelligence from our emotions, body, mind, collective consciousness to the conversation about our future, we will come up with radically new solutions and visions.
Asking “What does a more beautiful world look like?” is, for instance, a way to invite the heart to imagine the future we want to have. The heart knows about beauty, abundance, joy. It has an intuitive sense of what creates conditions for more life to emerge and what not.
Building the field of transformation by imaging the future collectively and inclusively
Asking what the more beautiful world we like to live in looks like is a question that needs to be answered collectively. My ideas, sparks, visions of the future, when shared with you create a new picture in your mind. When you share yours, the same happens to me. The vision of a better future becomes thus a collective creative and inclusive process.
If we want to take up the opportunity offered by the emerging political will into the transformation of society, all those driving the change need to create and nurture the field of change. They can do so by:
1 – connecting within initiatives moving in the same direction, independently from their story and institution. Radically new types of collaborations and co-creation are needed for transformation to happen.
2- connecting with all parts of society, especially those at the margins. We need to hear all voices, including all perspectives, understand all motivations. By excluding parts of society, groups of people, ways of thinking, we will create polarization. Where there is a “us” and “them” we will keep being stuck in the present system.
My call is to take up this opportunity for change by applying “social technologies” that bridge silos, connect people, and help to dream and develop a common vision that will lighten up the next steps of our collective path.
Let us work on societal transformation and scaling impact together:
Join some of us at the upcoming Scaling Impact Lab
Have a look at some methods to…
Bring people together:
- Multistakeholder dialogues (See UNDP Handbook)
- Warm Data Labs
- Apply Theory-U process & related methods
- Collaborative Leadership
Let’s learn to listen to each other:
- Apply empathy (short video by René Brown)
- Non Violent Communication (Process overview)
- Deep listening
Let’s dream together:
- Visioning the future (Article: Envisioning a future that works for all: characteristics of the visioning process)
- Dragon dreaming
- 4D mapping
- Visualisations, storytelling from the future, vision quests in nature, …