‘We Deserve More Than This’ by me
Acrylic paint on re-purposed IKEA shelves
February 2022
On climate action and why we need to ask for more.
How do you ask for more when you already live in a world of abundance? How do you ask for more when looking out your window on a blue sky day, you can roll an endless list of beauty off your tongue just from a quick glance?
How do you ask for more when sitting in a room full of decision-makers, you are thrown back a repetitive script full of answers as to why it can’t possibly happen? How do you ask for more when there are many who are still asking for what you already have?
This is the dilemma I face when I contemplate the idea of asking for more. It’s the heart-racing feeling I get when I’m sitting in a room opposite decision-makers or when I join a Zoom meeting of business people who expect me to play the role of the inspiring activist but will watch on uncomfortably when I push back against their proposals and ideas a little harder than they would have liked.
Asking for more when you are the only one brave enough to do it can feel vulnerable and isolating. I am often left to feel like what the mainstream media might call a ‘snowflake’; too sensitive, too fragile, too inconvenient to just accept that, in the words of Bo Burnham, “That is how the world works”.
There are times when my own ideas make me feel small too, like when an egregious force decides to inflict pain on an entire country and region overnight despite the millions of calls not to. Like when an obvious solution to suffering is right there and possible, even temporarily put into place – like supporting those experiencing homelessness during a global pandemic – but is purposefully not put into action, purposefully taken away overnight by those who are supposed to be looking after us.
Those of us who decide to highlight these injustices, those of us who use almost every waking breath to channel some light into the darkness, are met with namecalling and stereotypes and abuse (and for some, even extreme violence and murder), more often than not, when our light is just trying to highlight something simple.
In my fight toward climate action, I am really only ever asking for one thing – a livable future. In the newest IPCC report, it was quoted that, “Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.”.
When we talk about something which is ‘livable’, we reference something which is good for living in, so, in the context of the climate and our home on Planet Earth as a whole, a livable future is not asking for much. We are simply asking for something good.
Life right now, for many people, is categorically not good. Whether it is families being forced into fuel poverty by a government insisting on supporting fossil fuel companies over the general population, whether it is those living in areas devastated by recent or ongoing war or whether it is the endless toll of capitalism on people’s everyday lives, there are a vast array of examples of things being ‘not good’.
But all of these things, on the face of it, have very simple, easy solutions. I say, ‘on the face of it’ to placate that part of me that rises up within to say, “But it’s not that simple! There are policies to write and people who will never be convinced!”, even though I know the policies are already written and most of the population are no longer denying that the problem actually exists (they just might not agree on why it exists).
And although there is a long list of ‘not good’ things, there is also an even longer list of ‘good’ things that our calls for a livable future are simply wanting to protect and give longevity to. I believe that even in our darkest moments, we are all able to make a list of our own ‘good’ things, even if that list ends at 3. For a start, here’s a list that comes to mind as I write this –
- Having the time to watch a sunset
- Beaches
- Live music
- Having the time to create art
- Having the time to spend with family
- Sharing food
- Wildflowers
- Swimming in clean water
- Fresh, unpolluted air
- The sound of a peaceful woodland
I am fortunate enough that my list is made up of things I have experienced in recent times but you might notice that none of it is especially extraordinary. I am not asking for the world to be reinvented in a way that only makes sense in sci-fi novels and Hollywood movies, just in ways that protect what we already know to be special and valuable. Just in ways that give us more of what is already good.
Because I believe we deserve more than this – more than a couple of hours after a long day at work to spend with our loved ones, more than two weeks a year to spend how we like, more than towns that are full of toxic fumes, more than fighting amongst ourselves, more than seeing nature destroyed in the name of profit. More. More. More.
I want to be greedy in the goodness I am asking for, turning greed from something that is selfish into something that is good for all of us.
I want to harvest all of the things worth protecting in a basket and plant new fruits for us to share. I want to listen to which crops you want to be planted, too, so, what grows is a collaborative effort.
I want to be greedy in the goodness I am asking for, turning greed from something that is selfish into something that is good for all of us. I want to harvest all of the things worth protecting in a basket and plant new fruits for us to share. I want to listen to which crops you want to be planted, too, so, what grows is a collaborative effort.
As part of a recent Climate Crisis Advisory Group meeting, Ade Adepitan responded to my comment about often feeling like a snowflake by saying, “We need an avalanche of snowflakes.”. Despite how it often makes me feel, I have to agree.
Imagine if I, or us, (if you ever feel similarly), were not the only ones in the room to say the uncomfortable thing. Imagine if we didn’t have to find the other frustrated face in the room, to seek out comfort from the only other person who might see things the way we do.
Imagine if raising our hand to question the way something is being done was greeted by the welcome arms of imagination, rather than the arms of limitation?
I think we would get to where we need to go a lot quicker if we dared to want more for ourselves, even if we are one of the lucky ones who already have so much.
We deserve more than this, even more than what is already beautiful and joyful, especially for those who are still fighting desperately to experience those things.
Want to start asking for more? Listen to my podcast, Idealistically, where we discuss what we would idealistically want in an ideal world.
