Ten things to know about the climate
When it comes to climate change, there are hundreds - perhaps thousands - of books about how to solve the problem. Every single day, we see a new impact or hear a new statistic.
But what if that’s the problem? What if we’re overwhelmed? What if all the ideas, knowledge, thoughts and information are simply too much for us to process?
As humans, we become paralysed by too much choice. All that information, all that writing, all those news stories that are designed to make us care, to act. What if they’re having the opposite effect?
What if, in our efforts to be heard, we’ve just shouted louder and louder. What if we no longer know who to listen to? If the messages get lost in so much noise? If there is so much going on in the background that we can no longer see the big picture?
The thing is, every book; every paper; every theory - they all boil down to ten things.
What would happen if, instead of trying to say everything to everyone; instead of sharing all the good news and all the bad news, we simply settled for these ten facts? After all, for 99% of us, this is all we really need to know.
The ten things we need to know
1) The science of climate change is not disputed. We know climate change is happening. We know that it is caused by humans. There is as much certainty about this within scientific circles as there is about the fact the earth is round.
2) We already have all the solutions we need. We know what we need to do; we know how to do it. As problems go, this isn’t a hard one.
3) If we do solve the climate crisis by reaching net zero, we’re still screwed.
4) We’re still screwed because climate change is a symptom, not a cause. We have lots of environmental problems: loss of wildlife and biodiversity, water pollution, plastic contamination, to name a few. They are all symptoms - all symptoms that will, before too long, kill us. The cause of the symptoms? The Global North consumes too much. We are literally suffocating ourselves with so much stuff.
5) The solution is as obvious, simple and easy as it appears. Every single one of us - in the ‘developed’ world - needs to consume less stuff.
6) The climate crisis is a wealth crisis. The world’s richest 1% account for 15% of emissions. The richest 10% account for 50% of emissions. The world's poorest 50% account for just 7% of emissions.
7) If you are reading this you are almost certainly richer than you realise. Only 20% of the world’s population have flown in a plane. $3,920 - about £3,000? That’s the average earnings for 50% of the world population. Just 1.1% of the entire global population has wealth of $1million plus. That house in the UK worth £800,000? The owner is in the world’s top 1.1%.
If you’re reading this, your income and lifestyle mean you are almost certainly consuming around 3-5 times more than the earth can sustain.
8) As an individual you are far more powerful than you realise. Governments are not doing what’s needed. Businesses are not going to save us. But as individuals, we can control what we buy - what we consume. Not always - if you live in a city designed for cars, or a village without public transport, then it’s pretty hard to manage without a car if you’ve a job to get to or you want to have fun days out. But even with governments that fail to help us go car-free, we can control so much. We control how many pairs of shoes we own; how often we replace our phone. How many calories we consume; how many ‘I don’t really need it, but…’ purchases we start to reject.
When we consume less, we’re solving the problem.
“I’m just one person”... said 8 billion people.
9) Living within our planetary boundaries - not taking more than the earth can renew - is not a sacrifice. Many of us crave greater financial security, four day weeks, more time for hobbies, families and friends, feeling part of a community, decluttered homes, having access to fresh, tasty, low cost organic food, and green streets where we talk to our neighbours whilst children play… All of these, and very much more, are what’s on offer if we choose to halt climate change.
10) We are on track to become one of the shortest lived mammals ever to roam the earth. We’re not, apparently, as clever or as resilient as we think we are. Our ancestors, from every corner of the globe, taught that humbleness and humility were what we should aspire to; that a desire for power and control should be shunned.
The solutions to the environmental crises lie in us.