If you were to analyse the news cycle over the last ten years and tried to find a common thread, it would be an accelerating multi-faceted environmental catastrophe. Climate Change (aka Global Warming, the Climate Crisis and the Climate Emergency) is the single biggest element in this Global Crisis; simply put, we are altering the climate of the planet and thus degrading its ability to support us. But there are several other crises that are almost as serious and they all share a common theme – that the Earth is a finite size and we are using it up. This Global Crisis is absolutely a man-made catastrophe; mankind’s very success is destroying Earth. You can read about how the Global Crisis might affect people here.
Given that the Global Crisis is man-made and we know it is coming, you’d expect that we’d just avoid it. But it seems we are unable to avoid it; it’s simply our fate. We’re looking at a slow motion car crash, bracing ourselves for impact as the drivers converge, ignoring or denying the risks they are running. It’s not just that things are going to end up badly, but that the system is set up to ensure that bad outcome.
We can’t just blame this problem on other people. Whether we are a politician trying to get elected, a tourist flying to his destination, an oil company selling its product, a motorist getting to work or a new beef farmer clearing some forest, we are all drivers in this process. We are all making choices that are logical for us, but often detrimental to the planet as a whole. Today’s society has evolved assuming that it was living on an unchanging planet, that each generation could do what it wanted without worrying about future generations. But that is no longer acceptable; it’s clear today’s generation is consuming the next generation’s planet.
What we need to do is to develop a Modern Society, where we protect the planet and following generations in the decisions we make today. To build public support, our new society has to be radically more attractive to the vast majority of people than today’s society. Modern Society has to reduce inequality, to prioritize people over corporations and quality of life over economic output. Here’s an action plan for this Modern Society and here is how it might affect some people’s lives.
A Modern Society 