At the TEDx event in Queenstown, two of Otago Polytechnic's staff gave talks. The talk I wanted to highlight this week was this one presented by Ella Lawton. Ella has recently completed a PhD on the New Zealand Footprint Project which looks at the amount of resources New Zealanders consume, how and why they use them, and whether they can use less of them without compromising well-being. In her TEDx talk, she speaks on Helena Norberg-Hodge's concept of how "localisation is a solution multiplier". It is an inspiring speech. You can relate this to your own community and even your veterinary clinic (or any other business) within it.
“When we take the time to make things in our own communities we not only reduce its Ecological Footprint but we strengthen the local economy and increase the amount of social fabric upon which more local magic can happen...How we spend our time and money is a decision about the type of future we want to live in.”
- Ella Lawton @ TEDxQueenstown, April 2013
Watch Ella's TEDx Queenstown talk here
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| Ella refers to her leather Jandals in her speech to make a point. |
Posting a comment here from an email I recieved:
ReplyDeleteI don't wear jandals (I'm British!!) but I eat lots of veggies and micro salads. Let the mission begin!!
I thought the concept of how we live today reflects the future we want was very poignant. Thanks for posting.
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Posting another comment here that I recieved via email: Thank you for sharing that lecture.
ReplyDeleteThe lady has some interesting and valid (in some circumstances) ideas.
However, she seems to neglect the basic idea that we have chosen Capitalism as our ‘vehicle’. By its very nature one of the markers of success in Capitalism is ‘big is good’. We constantly here ideas about how to ‘grow’ a business. The idea is to make more money.
Another marker is how much we consume. People want a bigger and fancier car and house. We want more toys (boats, motorcycles etc.). ‘More is better’.
I’m not sure the presenter addresses the above points. Why? In part, perhaps because she knows that most people are not willing to have less.
At present Capitalism allows us to make a virtually infinite number of models of cars, toasters, TV’s etc. Do we really need such choice? Think of all the energy that goes into producing such non essentials.
Now, look at socialist/communist society – Cuba for example. In this model people work cooperatively for the good of society. In Capitalism, we work for personal gain.
The question, in part, is ‘How much do we really need?’ - As opposed to ‘want’.
Our present efforts at recycling and making more fuel efficient cars are, in my opinion, only dealing with a symptom. I am inclined to think the core issue maybe greed. The bosses of Capitalism have convinced us that more and bigger are good things. Until we reverse or change this idea all the recycling in the world will make very little difference.
Think of housing for example. We choose to live in houses that really make little sense. Consider the geodesic dome. A perfectly adequate, well insulated dome can be constructed for a fraction of what is presently spent on housing.
Of course domes are not likely to happen as people do not find them aesthetically appealing.
How about cars? Most improvement to cars now is related to nice, but unnecessary things, such as better sound systems, rear vision cameras, GPSs etc.
Would anyone buy a basic care sans electric windows, electric antennae, and 8 speaker sound systems?
In any event, does the presenter imagine that we can produce refrigerators, stoves and cars locally?
Perhaps there is some hope on the ‘food front’. Maybe people can be educated to realize that they can be healthy without consuming large amounts of meat and fish.
And – maybe just maybe if we ceased converting every available acre to grapes we could actually be close to self-reliant as a country when it comes to food.
Finally, in not using certain items (ex. kitty litter) how do we help those people that lose their jobs as a result of us changing our habits?
Sorry for rambling but I really do see the greed of capitalism/consumerism as being a major obstacle. And one that I do not believe your presenter addressed.
My response to the email I received above:
ReplyDeleteHi James
Hey thanks heaps for the rant. It is great that I am finally getting some responses to my posts. Debate and discussion. Yay.
In terms of your post I quite agree! Greed is the major problem and it is fed by successive governments for sure. Change has to be consumer driven. What Ella was saying is that we need to build communities and relationships, we can still trade and have things, albeit less. At the moment we are all so busy working long hours and earning money to have more we have limited relationships locally and are generally "poorer" because of it. Look at mental illness for example, divorce and all those other things. Symptoms of the want want want society.
Anyway I also could go on. One thing that people working in the change industry have learnt is not focus on what is wrong but to paint ideas of compelling change. This is much more motivating than telling people what is wrong. Does that make sense. People then start making changes, shopping locally, planting veges, changing their purchasing decisions and so on and it drives a tide of change.
Remember when trying to make change focus on the positive, paint compelling visions and people will jump on board. Paint doom and gloom and what is wrong and people will just stick their heads in the sand and say what's the point.
Thanks heaps for replying. Keep feeding back comments. It's really important to drive discussion.