Via

Being in the audience of Debatt yesterday was fairly interesting though I wish I had been braver and said things when I actually had the chance… I have so much to say on this subject. Like: Why angle a program on consumption & climate to mainly putting blame on female shopping of small things when we all know that energy, cars & agriculture are the main things that make an impact on the environment. (Not saying that I want to excuse excessive consumption of things, I am not a consumer of new things myself and that is really a big relief for me to not have to be) Why make women into mindless shoppers & let the men debate the issues of carbon storage & rationing of carbon dioxide. Why reduce people to consumers and make them believe that their consumption power is more important than their very humanity & solidarity and the opportunity we have in the western world to actually get involved, and mainly: why even think about technical future solutions as the only option while we can watch the people of sub-saharan Africa, Haiti etc die right now before our very eyes due to man made catastrophes. I am sure they would not, if they ever had the chance to speak out on the matter, tell me that it was sinful of me to not be an excessive consumer since the money I’d bring society would have “inspired economical growth” and lead to the “technical advancements” (that the opposite side of the debate says already exists… if it did, isn’t this the proof that  this system will not use technology to help people if they can not at the same time make a profit out of it) that would have been worth the cost of lives that could right now at this moment have been prevented if only it wasn’t for our greed and disgusting narrowmindedness.

So if I would have said anything there it would have been: do not make yourself less than a human by thinking that your consumption power is the only power you could ever really use because that is just embarassing… If you do believe that there will be a miraculous scientific revealation that will salvage us all and help, not only with the climate chaos but also with the soil shortage, the contamination by toxins, the energy crisis, the over fishing of the seas, the excessiveness of the life styles and the sprawl of the car dependant cities,  the mass extintion of species which we yet do now have any idea of how the ecosystems manage without… then by all means be my guest to show me that you will implement those solutions that are possible to prevent all this right now, instead of hiding behind the possibility of a future when we’re on the brink of disaster also here in this part of the world and which would be when we’d all suddenly make everything right again (for us) Do not constantly cram it in to peoples’ heads that this is too advanced a question for them to deal with on a personal and political basis by getting informed & adapting their every day lives towards long term sustainability.

I would never want to look back on my life and say that what I did for the world was to chose climate-smart gasoline & ecological meat, or even that the only thing I ever did was to be a vegan who ran a vintage store & lived in a shared household instead of being the manager of a H&M, with a house of my own & a car. I am not mainly a consumer, I am an interested human being who want to get involved and learn things and I hope that people stop feeling like the consumer role is their main contribution because if we do think that then we’re all equally fucked.