Russ Vernon-Jones

love, justice, and climate change … I know you can make a difference.

Economic system

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Reflections on COP26 – How Bad, or Good, Was It?

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COP26, this year’s UN climate conference, has ended. There has been and will continue to be a lot of analysis and opinion published about what happened and didn’t happen. The almost 200 countries represented there failed to agree to sufficient emission cuts to enable global warming to stay below 1.5° C. The developed nations also failed to commit sufficient financing to enable developing nations to adequately limit their emissions and respond to the climate crisis.

At the same time, some good commitments were made and some good steps taken. (See below for some examples.) Despite having limited access to the official proceedings, the voices of frontline nations and peoples were powerful and clear inside the conference halls and beyond. Young people and other climate activists rallied in the streets, led workshops and meetings, and expressed a clear moral urgency. Unfortunately, the delegates, especially those of the wealthy and fossil fuel producing nations, didn’t show the same level of moral clarity.

It is not surprising that what is required to address the crisis didn’t happen in Glasgow these last two weeks. What’s required is transforming the global economy from one based on energy from fossil fuels to one relying entirely on emission-free energy; upending profit and greed as the dominant organizing principles of our economies; and moving significant power and wealth from the predominantly white nations to the more than 80% of the world’s people who are black and brown.

That’s a tall order, to say the least!

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Doughnut Economics

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In my previous post I raised the issue of “living lightly on the earth” — inviting us to think about our levels of consumption and what lifestyles are sustainable on a planet with 7.8 billion other humans. We will each need to make our own decisions about what a sensible and workable lifestyle is for us. As a society, we also need to think about a more sustainable and equitable economic system — what should be its goals and how can we bring it into being?

As I wrote last time, I’m intrigued by what I’ve learned so far about “Doughnut Economics.” First, there are no glazed or cream-filled pastries here — just an intriguing doughnut-shaped diagram that summarizes some important ideas. I believe we can all think about the most important issues facing our society. The “doughnut” approach provides us with an accessible entry point to some interesting and relevant perspectives on economic systems.

Kate Raworth, the creator of this way of thinking about things, says that “a healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not grow. …

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Living Lightly on the Earth

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I like the creature comforts of my middle class lifestyle. At the same time I believe in global equity. I’m sure that I’m using more than my fair share of the world’s resources and that the planet could not accommodate 7.8 billion people consuming as much as my neighbors and I do.

I’ve written about many climate action steps we can take — many of which won’t require much change in our lifestyles. Today I want to invite you (and me) to consider the almost certain reality that solving the climate crisis will require reduced consumption and reduced energy use by most of us in the so-called “developed” nations.

So many of us have been conditioned to believe that more is better, that it can be challenging for us to think in this area. I’m hardly an expert. Rather than trying to provide answers, I’d like to share three experiences….

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What’s Race Got to Do with It?

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The economic system that prevails in the United States and globally has caused, and continues to cause, the climate crisis. That system depends on racism for its very existence. Therefore we must address racism if we want to stop climate change.

How does racism keep the current inequitable system in place?

Five ways that racism maintains the system and works against our efforts to stop climate change:

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What are we trying for? System change?

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What do we want? What should the climate movement be trying to accomplish?

How we see the current situation affects what we are trying for. It affects what we think are the most important things to do and how we go about getting them done.

We may see our current situation like this: vast use of fossil fuels has caused such high emissions of greenhouse gases that the climate is changing in ways that are disastrous for humans and other species. The best solutions are to dramatically increase the use of solar and wind power and to adopt some better practices with regard to food, farming and forests.

This description and its implied solutions are certainly accurate. All of the above is true. However, ….

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