It is Anzac Day 2022, a day we remember those who fought to give us the choices we now have to shape the lives we lead.
In homage to the sacrifices they made, we need to be thinking seriously about the choices we are making that will impact on those who follow us.
Significant in those thoughts should be to think differently about the term ‘climate change’.
It is too narrow a term, implying we just need to be concerned about the immediate impact of CO2 on weather, and the human and capital impacts of those changes.
Instead, we need to be thinking about the challenges more holistically.
The planet we live on is an ecosystem, of which we humans are just a small but enormously influential part. For millennia, the impact we had on the eco system was inconsequential, but that changed with the industrial revolution, and have continued to change at a geometric rate. We suddenly are taking more out of the ecosystem than previously, impacting on the ability of the system to replace what we have taken, to the point where currently we are taking more than can be replaced.
An ecosystem is a bit like an investment portfolio. It benefits from diversity. When the diversity of any portfolio reduces, it makes that portfolio less resilient to outside shocks.
The planets ecosystem is being stripped of diversity, and as it is with an investment portfolio, it has become less resilient, less able to sustain itself. As a result, we are seeing those radical changes in weather patterns, and the consequential changes in climate.
There is nothing we do that does not come from nature. The oxygen we breathe, the water we drink, the foods we eat, the materials we use, all come from nature. We are part of the planets ecosystem, whether we like it or not, and we are consuming the resources of the ecosystem at an unsustainable rate.
Think of it as you would a balance sheet. On one side you have assets, on the other liabilities and equity. When your assets grow faster than your liabilities, you add to the store of equity. When it is the reverse, you deplete equity. The tipping point is when your equity is gone, and you can no longer sustain the difference between the rate in increase of liabilities over the production of assets. At that point you are bankrupt.
We humans have been depleting the assets of the planet unsustainably since the beginning of the industrial revolution, and the rate at which the depletion is happening is increasing. At some point, the music will stop, and subsequent generations will face the sort of dystopian future we see in sci-fi movies.
I think we have reached, or almost reached that point.
On this Anzac Day, as we have a BBQ in the back yard with friends, sink a few beers and stand in circles and throw a few pennies in the air, we should also be considering the legacy of our time in this place, and what we should collectively be doing about it.
It also happens to be my beautiful, educated and talented daughters birthday. Perhaps it is the thoughts of her children, yet to make an entry, that have made me consider the sort of world that my generation is leaving to them.
My daughter is 36 today. Several dregees, represented Australia as a gymnast, working on the front lines of the health services, and just engaged.
I guess grandchildren will not be far away, but she has certainly taken her time, while not wasting a moment.
As I consider the world those grandchildren will inherit, I think they will look back at my generation and wonder what the hell we were doing, while condeming us as short sighted fools.
Well said. I have talked to quite a few talented younger people, mid 20’s to early 30’s who are in stable relationships and considering not having kids for fear of what the future may look like.