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We Need to End the Racism Pandemic

This is not a post about environmental justice but it is about social justice.

I am an Australian of mixed heritage: Kenyan and English. The reality my black brothers and sisters are living angers me every time I think about it. I have lived racism, thankfully not often. I have seen my father live racism. I do not want to bring my children up in a world where this is real life. I don’t want other children to grow up in a world where this is real, where they may experience racism, hear it, see it, or heaven forbid take part in it.

This can no longer be ignored, something must be done, by you, by me, structurally.

Leaders must confront the uncomfortable truth head on and change must happen. Now! I like to believe that in 2020 racism exists in a minority, but that is not good enough. We have 400 years of the most disgusting hatred. It must stop now. Here. With us.

That people can be killed, humiliated, subordinated because of the colour of their skin, but also because of their religion or culture is beyond not being ok. It is a despicable act of hatred that must be addressed at both the highest and lowest levels. On the street. In parliaments. In the White House…in the White House!

What has happened to George Floyd is a pandemic of another kind. It kills. It hurts. It leaves scars. This should not be happening, and yet it is. At the hands of so called law enforcers, in a seriously ill criminal justice system.

There needs to be structural change, systemic change, societal change if we are to overcome this illness.

I stand in solidarity.

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Climate emergency requires changing the value of the environment

Last June Hobart City Council joined 623 other jurisdictions and local councils (including 22 in Australia) in 13 countries to declare a climate emergency, becoming the first Australian capital city to do so.

So what exactly is a climate emergency? Many political and climate scientists state that emergency policy measures towards zero emissions are a necessary measure to try and stay within the ‘safe operating space’ for the climate at around 1.5°C warming or 350 ppm of atmospheric carbon concentration. Declaring a climate emergency means making a commitment to radical carbon emissions reduction. It means that government puts climate and environmental policy central, rather than as an add-on.

Although there is no single definition of a ‘climate emergency’ making a binding commitment to an urgent speed transition to zero emissions is a significant step in climate policy. By declaring a climate emergency, local councils like Hobart City Council demonstrated leadership to act on climate change that is lacking at the federal level. Local councils can start the ball rolling on climate emergency initiatives, putting pressure on state and federal governments to do the same, proving a promising avenue for wide scale urgent climate action.

Declaring a climate emergency is not just a symbolic act of recognition, it requires making some tough decisions that break away from ‘business-as-usual’.

A departure from ‘business-as-usual’ means major shifts in policies (not limited to) for manufacturing, transport, land use, tourism, and economic investment; as well as vast changes in individual social and consumer behaviours, which in turn requires a focus on education. Including climate change and ecological values in curriculums is vital in educating our next generation of climate leaders. This policy and behavioural shift means not taking the most cost-effective option in public spending, but making choices that value the environment over the bottom line.

With so much political recognition of the need to put the environment and climate change front and centre of policy, a declaration of a climate emergency can be a pathway to make transformational change in the way local governments approach development, scaling that up nationally, and ultimately having an impact on the role the environment has in the human world.

A climate emergency requires all of us – individuals and governments – to rethink our relationship with nature.

The traditional approach of viewing nature as a commodity has proven itself to be far from sustainable. Take, for example, Buen Vivir which in Ecuador led to a world first development policy recognising the Rights of Nature. This approach steers away from the wellbeing of human beings at the centre of decision-making, valuing environment and human wellbeing equally.

In other words, we are no more important than our environment, and unless radical action to safeguard the latter is taken urgently, life on this planet is under severe threat.

The changes that need to be made are not necessarily going to be uncostly, but one just needs to compare the ultimate cost of not acting on climate change. Governments have the opportunity to integrate some of these costs into post-COVID stimulus plans.

It is no longer a radical utopic idea, but something that needs to happen – especially relevant under the declaration of a climate emergency.

There is a joint policy-behavioural responsibility to act, though governments, particularly at the local level must facilitate that through policy action including looking at the structures and spaces that allow for transformational change, not just rhetoric. The economic challenges related to the current global pandemic might result in the latter. It is up to all of us to push for change.

That said, we need a substantial amount of political will combined with people power to tackle the climate emergency; and it is the actions of both our political leaders, and of individuals thinking collectively that will help determine what this looks like in the coming years, especially faced with challenges like COVID-19.

What comes after COVID19? Buen Vivir and a social and ecological ‘reset’

In the space of a few short, but seemingly long months, the world as we know it has changed. Perhaps forever. We should neither long nor need to return to the old ‘normal’. The normal that perpetuated an economy of overexploitation of the people and the planet. The old normal that preoccupied our minds and hands with the business of wealth accumulation and economic growth without limits.

If we return to the old normal, what have we learnt? The time has come, as Ateljevic rightly argues, to “mainstream previously marginalised ideas…To potentially move what was considered either radical, over positive or naïve into the centre of (y)our attention and (y)our consideration.”

“During this great pause, we could potentially embrace the holistic paradigms and practices that have been waiting on the margins. In our humbled state, we could bring them into the centre and build a new system around them (Eisenstein, 2020).”

One such idea that has applicability now more than ever is the Latin American concept of Buen Vivir. If you know my work, you will know that I have dedicated the past few years trying to understand what it entails and how to practically bring it into other contexts. It has in the past been labelled vague. Rooted in Indigenous cosmology, it has grown to involve grassroots, political, and academic interpretations. Yet, the way it has evolved in recent years – honouring its Indigenous past but co-constructing it from those who have influence in its meaning (without co-opting the term) – means that we have a great deal to learn about how to change our relationship with others and our planet.

It is about learning from those previously marginalised voices who have something extremely valuable to contribute to the wellbeing of people and the planet.

Taking those co-constructed meanings about Buen Vivir, through my doctoral research I developed a framework from 17 principles of Buen Vivir that I identified from communities in Ecuador, academia and policy. My aim has always been to enable lessons from those voices to help us on the trajectory for a better planet. My upcoming book will outline how this can be done in any context using the framework as a community tool for change – for the transformative change that we need.

We have already started this shift on the margins in many societies, and in multiple ways not labelled Buen Vivir, but nonetheless in the same ethos. People have been increasingly scaling-down their way of life for some time now. Environmentally, individuals, households and businesses have started to change their consumptive ways, striving for low waste or even no waste lifestyles and product offerings. We see this through the numerous vocalised ‘No Waste’ movements that have cropped up all over the world.

Economically and socially, focus has been turning from mass-consumption to local, fair and ethical trade; socially, communities have been slowly becoming more connected through local initiatives community centres, gardens, knowledge-sharing activities. The unprecedented shift from global to local during COVID19 has accelerated that change to a pace that might just have some transformative impact.

If this change is already occurring, do we not have a moral obligation to pursue it and continue its momentum, rather than long to return to a state of chaos and despair that perpetuates the status quo that is global capitalism and neoliberal development?

It seems to me illogical in the period that follows to turn the tables on local trade, community solidarity, greater connections with nature, communal wellbeing, increased leisure time, renewed focus on family and friends and the positive ecological benefits that have ensued the tragedy that has come from the COVID crisis; and instead return to the individualistic, anthropocentric and globally focused exploitative ways of the past.

COVID19 has been a tragedy of unprecedented proportions. I am not so naive as to think that society will have completely learned from it and we will entirely upend all that is wrong with the world both socially and environmentally, but we have a rare opportunity to change the course of direction, and an open door to change. Let’s not slam it in the face of social and ecological wellbeing for the sake of the few beneficiaries of the wealthy.

This is my first blog post of many navigating this New Normal (capitals and no apostrophes, because it is a fact rather than an idea). Thanks for reading and please follow me here, and on twitter, as we navigate this together. I will not only be writing about Buen Vivir, but also about all the issues implicated in Buen Vivir such as climate change, ecological sustainability, nature, social justice, human rights and economic alternatives.