The Forum > Article Comments > Welcome to the Red Planet > Comments
Welcome to the Red Planet : Comments
By Julian Cribb, published 28/9/2009The more carbon we release, the drier the world’s grasslands and grainbelts are going to get and the more dust storms we will have.
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"...your economic signal has to change and you will probably end up paying much the same for food, in real terms, as your Nan and Gramps used to. They, after all, had a food system that was fairly sustainable."
Julian, the problem with this sort of reasoning is that only a small number of conscientious people will do it while the masses blunder forth regardless. It won't work unless a large portion of the populace do it - in fact, the vast majority. Conscientious people might modify their tiny economic signals as much as they can, and then see absolutely no change in society or the people around them for their efforts. I know. I've been there. It is a very disillusioning experience.
Sure we should be doing this sort of thing, that is; just being a whole lot more frugal and sensible about our purchasing and consumption practices. But the more important thing we need to be doing is advocating a regime of sustainability, in which not only reduced per-capita consumption is important, but also stabilisation of population and maximised effort put into developing alternative energy sources and more efficient food supplies.
We need to be yelling this from the rooftops, writing to newspapers, getting on talk-back radio, boring it up our political reps and plugging away on forums like OLO!
Even if the vast majority of us did reduce or modify our consumption practices, we'd achieve just about nothing for as long as the population continues to rapidly grow. I know that you appreciate this point. But unfortunately it is not emphasised in this article. This and the overall sustainability strategy imperative are all-important in addressing climate change.
Anyway, apart from this omission, your expression of concern is most apt. Keep the articles coming on this forum.