‘I am too young to watch pornography. Why am I seeing the planet getting fucked?’. This sentence blazed on a banner held by a 15-year-old during a march for climate change I attended in my home town of Brussels.
‘Climate Change’: not only does this term capture the rise of global average temperatures, predominantly caused by human activity, but it also carries incredible potency. Rising sea levels, more frequent heat waves, loss of biodiversity, forest fires; the list of dramatically damaging consequences of global warming is endless. Amin Maalouf (2019) depicts the current state of our civilisation as an economic, political, ethical, and social ‘naufrage’, French for ‘shipwreck’.
Like many students of my generation, I am a vegetarian, drink from a reusable water bottle, buy most of my clothes second-hand, and have recently decided to limit my air travel. I am aware that these actions only enable me to be at peace with my own conscience and are far from what is required to tackle climate change. They are essentially individual actions, as opposed to the collective and fundamental changes required to rescue our ship.
Indeed, there are numerous projects that are beneficial. Among them one can find the establishment of B-Corp labels for companies which incorporate sustainability within their DNA, the work of NGOs such as Cool Earth that focuses on carbon offsetting, and the production of electric cars pioneered by Tesla. However, despite their positive influence, such piece-meal initiatives will be insufficient to tackle global warming as a whole.
I contend that we must rebuild a ship that can sustainably navigate the oceans we have embarked upon. For that to be possible, we need fundamental reforms of our economic system, combined with the political will to endorse these changes and unite the global community behind them, whilst acknowledging differences between developed and developing countries.
In 1995, with the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol extending the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the international community attempted to prevent the wreckage of our ship. In July 2019, however, sweating through the record-breaking heat on the European continent, I look back at those insufficient efforts undertaken by yesterday’s and today’s leaders during numerous international conferences, most recently the COP24 in Katowice. The latter for instance was marked by missed deadlines, included relatively permissive rules, lacked satisfactorily forceful language with regards to climate pledges, and failed to establish an agreement on voluntary market mechanisms, further postponing the discussion to Chile’s COP 25.
This unsuccessful past is greatly due to the fact that during the previous centuries, the likes of Reagan and Thatcher reduced and directed Adam Smith’s (1776) ‘invisible hand’ into today’s free market model, legitimising climate destruction and its consideration as a mere ‘externality’. Since models carry authority, it is only once economists and policymakers change the frame with which they analyse the world that we will be able to build a sustainable ship all together.
In light of this, not only must we today address the ‘Economy’, but it is even more paramount that we think about what Bernard Lietaer (2001) calls ‘Ecosophy’. The replacement of the Greek word ‘nomos’ (law) with the word ‘sophia’ (wisdom) highlights that we must establish a system within which we should live wisely on our planet, and not just clarify its economic laws. Advocating for a normative change may appear radical at first; yet, there are numerous applications of ‘Ecosophic’ thinking within both the literature and the real world that have demonstrated its effectiveness.
Rather than abandoning our capitalist system completely, we must recognise that its current form is incompatible with a long-term vision for our planet, and adapt it to the existential challenges we are facing as a society without dropping its beneficial aspects.
One such models was developed by Kate Raworth, in her ‘Doughnut Economics’ (2017). Instead of following ‘homo economicus’ and a supply and demand capitalist model solely focused on growth, she posits that policymakers should focus on social and environmental metrics first. The ‘doughnut’ model Raworth presents consists of an inner circle for social measures such as poverty and unemployment rates, and an exterior circle for the planetary and environmental boundaries we should not breach (e.g. pollution rates, ocean acidity, etc.). The magnitude of the wreckage we are stuck in should hasten our efforts and strengthen our commitment to this new approach.
Once implemented in all different industries after clear directives and guidelines have been drawn up into concrete laws, such a radical shift would have substantial consequences. For the financial sector, for instance, this would entail integrating climate risk and environmental factors within investment evaluations. Creditors would refrain from lending money to fossil fuel companies, and investors would follow the path of the Climate Action 100+ by becoming active owners and engaging with management during AGMs, promoting change through constructive and effective efforts.
The ‘Ecosophic’ approach also includes altering the structure of the monetary system. Indeed, it determines the kind of transactions that occur within a society; in our case, we want to mitigate the ones contributing to climate change, and foster the climate-friendly ones. Central banks and governments around the world should stimulate the emergence of alternative currencies. Following the ideas of Silvio Gesell, alternative currencies such as the Brussels’ ‘Zinne’, the LETS in the UK, and the New York Ithaca hour (among others) have been supporting local communities by directing consumption towards socially and environmentally responsible local enterprises. The Brussels’ ‘Zinne’, for instance, incentivises inhabitants of Brussels to buy produce from local farmers with a discount and membership system. This limits the transportation of goods from across the planet, increases the transparency of the supply chain, and strengthens the local economy.
Only through such concrete initiatives deriving from a thorough rethinking of our capitalist system will we be able to repair our sinking ship. Such commitment marks a stark contrast to most politicians who appear dominated by a myopic mentality, blinded by the forthcoming of another election; such behaviour is essentially incompatible with effective solutions to climate change which require long-term and global thinking. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez who sponsored the Green New Deal, an economic stimulus package to achieve carbon neutrality and social justice in the US, and legislatures like the Ecuadorian parliament including respect of nature within its constitution, are examples of the ambitious leadership we must strive for.
It is through these imminent, determined efforts on a global scale implemented today that we have a chance to salvage our ship, instead of letting it ‘get fucked’.