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#SocEnt Should Encourage Climate Change
Nearly every single one of us equates money with happiness. We want our pigs to be treated well but we don’t want to pay for it. We don’t like working long hours but do like the lifestyle (trap) that comes with it. We expect the Government to provide for us but aren’t really happy to pay for it.
Individuals frequently reassess these priorities. They go on trips to Third World countries to be horrified by living conditions and come back with a renewed love of life, nature and the world. They reconsider what they value, what is truly important (a Playstation versus a tree). They start living differently and may or may not continue. I saw these things on The Old Kent Road (London); I’m slipping back.
The only way society at large will ever reconsider what it values, is when it also has these things slapped in its face. Society will never assess the relative importance of well-treated animals or our environment until those things are taken away from us. We all grow complacent, we all need reminders. In the developed world you don’t value clean drinking water as it is taken for granted.
Thus social enterprise should encourage climate change. We should embrace the sceptics. We should hasten the global warming meltdown, we need the Water Wars and the drought and death and disease. Nothing else will wake us up.
It is only when the UK is a lifeboat country with millions in the water clambering aboard that we will ever realise what truly matters.
Discuss.
Tags: change, climate, enterprise, pragmatic, reality, social, wars, water
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Mowatt on -
Alastair, It might be indeed be considered a dimension of the social environmental and ethical contribution of social enterprise
Over the last 2 years, part our efforts as a social enterprise has been with the Economics for Ecology conferences at Sumy State University in Ukraine to develop an understanding of the need for an economic model which is itself sustainable, on which to establish sustainable business.
http://www.p-ced.com/1/projects/ukraine/sumy/
At a local level I'm offering whatever resource we can contribute in our efforts to prevent the sale of Forestry Commission woodlands which are seen as being very much part of our social infrastructure.
Hands off the Forest of Dean grouo -
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Permalink Reply by Don Pinchbeck on
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Don't worry Alastair. Sport is untouchable, and will be the role model for ensuring we all drown or bake. Note F1 Motor sport. The first race of the season, having carted cars, parts, multitiudes of people etc for hundreds or thousands of miles, will be held under specially installed floodlights (carted the generators there too) lighting the track and surrounds to a level 10 times that of the M1 (for TV purposes). The lighting is so that a night race can be run, and we can see the race in "normal viewing hours". It is therefore easy to look at Mr Button, Mr Hamilton and Mr Ecclestone's carbon footprints and say - well if that's not a problem, what do I have to worry about. And F1 isn't the worst - NASCAR is far worse. Since 20 pounds of carbon dioxide are emitted per gallon of fuel - and 6,000 gallons are used per race - this means 120,000 of CO2 are generated per race. With 35 races per year, NASCAR alone is responsible for 4 million pounds of carbon dioxide a year. And that's just the fuel, not tyres, people travelling there etc. . The 2010 World Cup was found to have emitted 2,753,251 tons of carbon dioxide. This is the same amount of CO2 that one million cars will emit over one year. There were an additional 15,390 tons of carbon dioxide emitted from buildings that were erected to support the World Cup (such as additional stadiums).Football matches are regularly held under floodlights for TV convenience purposes. The Telegraph reports that the most comprehensive survey yet of 28,000 buildings in public ownership found almost 14 million tons of carbon dioxide were emitted in a year, with New Scotland Yard, the Tate Modern and the Palace of Westminster among some of the worst. Governments don't care. Witness the lack of progress made at Kyoto etc. Surely it can't be that urgent if the governments of the world think it's not worth acting to stop the worst excesses - not even on the grounds of being bad role models? Now my guilty secret. I chair a company that takes people to see motorcycle racing world wide. I wrestle with my conscience and so far I've won - just - by setting it off against the other environmentally friendly companies and social enterprises that I also chair or serve. Not sure I can justify it for much longer though
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Permalink Reply by Keith Heggart on -
By encouraging climate change we might be able to change the (social) climate, hey?
I'm not sure I agree with your post, Alastair, but I must say that it certainly provoked some distinctly uncomfortable thoughts. I agree that, without constant reminders, we risk slipping back into complacency, and, just like you mention, I've noticed myself getting far too comfortable with certain parts of my life
However, I'm not sure I completely agree with your rather grim ideas. Personally, and this might simply be my own lived experience, I think there is a range of exciting initiatives that suggest that people are beginning to value things - projects in Australia (where I live) that seek to value things like the environment, recycling, reusability. And added to that, I think there is in educational circles a growing desire to encourage amongst young people a wholistic approach to citizenship and human rights.
Of course, there is a long way to go...
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