Eventually, after about 15 years of rabid activism, I lost interest in new solutions. Your list nails it entirely,
"Traditional woodworking. Neo-pagansim. Reclaim the Streets. Non-violent direct action. Veganism. The Left. Anti-war. Eco-logical footprinting. Conservation. Permaculture. Rewilding. Cradle to Cradle. The circular economy. Doughnut Economics. Transition Towns. Conscious consumerism. Minimalism. Non-dualism."
The situation we're now in is not due to a lack of solutions. It may even be due to too many of them obscuring the fact that we already know what we have to do, and we already know how to do it. We just don't like what this knowledge means.
A valuable read, again. Thank you. Interesting comments about kiwi apathy and avoidance tactics. I share the same experiences, I am also a Brit who has been here 16 years. People do not seem to like feeling judged, blamed or associated with undesirable behaviour choices. My own attempts to write about the hard stuff have met with crickets.
Andy I agree with everything you say. Probably not what you hoped for but perhaps better than a void. My knowledge is nothing compared to yours but I am also a writer and once worked for several environmental and conservation groups. They broke my heart so I went and worked for a bank. These days I have lots of time to read, scroll and ponder. I am old enough to know I won’t see the worst of what I have helped create. That breaks my heart too. So I sort my waste, walk or use public transport instead of drive, offset my air travel, buy second hand and feel totally useless. It seems to me now that nothing short of total collapse of the current system is going to stop the environmental apocalypse. Selfishly, I hope not to see it.
(I wrote this before reading your latest blog about permaculture which rather pre-empts my comments. But I think what I say is relevant because it is not totally in agreement with you, even if we did use the same obvious metaphor!)
Thank you Andy for putting yourself out there so honestly. Sometimes, when one speaks the open truth, there is not much more to say beyond a limp concurring. But you do it so well—better than anyone else!
Reading the comments, it is interesting to see how many of us have a similar background: born in the UK but moved to Aotearoa; loving it but not totally fitting in. Will you bear with me while I share my story, because I hope you will see that it is relevant?
After living in Newcastle for three years while at university in the early 70s, I had to get out of the dirty city. I became part of the “back to the land” movement, buying and renovating an old stone ruin up on the moors. You know the story: chickens, veggie garden and basic income from self-taught craft woodworking; partner, children.
But Thatcher, the Cold War and the upland weather were too much for us. So we jumped ship, selling everything for a yacht which, after five years of carefree living in the tropics, brought us to Aotearoa. After some hard times exercising adaptability, the craft woodworking took off. Thanks to some good designs it became a profitable business.
This took me around the world to big trade shows, and it gave me a platform from which to speak about the environment. For twenty years I have done this, while also trying to implement my beliefs into the way I run the business. When I started out, I felt I was one of a few lone voices—that what I was saying desperately needed to be heard. This was especially so after a trip to Antarctica where I heard the scary stories that scientists were revealing but not publicising. I tried to partly justify my travel by using it to promote the environmental message and saying that design is only good if it is responsible.
But over the years I have found more and more people repeating the same things, while virtually nothing is actually being done. The message has been neutered: aware of increasing public awareness, big businesses have thrown bucketloads of money at making themselves look green (not to mention deliberate obfuscation). They sign up to carefully designed schemes that are just another business taking their money in return for an accreditation that allows business pretty much as usual. So Shell has the effrontery to talk about being carbon neutral by . . .
I have done some of these things too, with the best of intentions. Maybe—hopefully—it has helped a little; at least it has made me feel slightly better. We have also gone through the personal motions, trying to find a positive spin, doing all the obvious things we can like not eating meat and driving an EV.
But we now know that none of this is enough. So, it is time to jump ship again.
This time the ship we are on is the Titanic and we can see the iceberg (oh lovely irony!). But the ship is too massive, has built up too much inertia, is driven by power-crazy maniacs who, to protect their power, wilfully convince themselves that their ship is invincible. It will not change course or slow down—it simply cannot, it was not designed that way.
We need to grab a lifeboat and get off this madness, to put our lives in the hands of a small, nimble and unencumbered craft with which we can steer a safe course through the dangers and disasters ahead. Maybe the waves from the sinking ship will inundate us too, but at least we tried.
So let’s allow the Titanic to blunder its doomed way forward and talk about our small vessel. Or is it an ark?! This is not the 'solution' that you are seeking--as you say there is none. It is just a few scared people trying to do what they believe in.
“But I did expect people to argue with me. Nobody did.”
Yes - I have tried to alert those closest to me to what lies ahead. Almost no one seems to agree - or to disagree. So politely deaf that it is both saddening and maddening in equal measure.
I think strength to face such trials will come from unity. We don’t have even that, not really, if we can’t or won’t communicate about important, life-and-death matters.
Aug 22, 2022·edited Aug 23, 2022Liked by Andy Kenworthy
I agree with a lot of what you say.
As a fellow 'newcomer' in Aotearoa bringing French heritage and love of spirited debate I chuckled heartily at your description of the New Zealand tendency of conflict avoidance, and the (often unfulfilled) desire to incite some sort of passionate exchange of ideas about the big topics.. anything, just anything.. just care damn you! ;)
Questions drift through my mind around these themes all the time. Can we save "all this"? Are we up to the task, collectively? Does it deserve saving? Can we only save ourselves (and those closest to us)? or is that not ultimately possible if we don't save everyone? As saving literally everyone is not possible, how many is enough? Do we only try if we can have complete success or is 'fighting the fight' a worthy pursuit? Is all this macho male-focused war speak helping organise us like good Victorian-era men of duty or is it actually getting in the way? Does the sharing of good ideas only count if one is virtuous and above reproach, somehow untarnished by, and non-complicit in the system? What is 'actually' the thing that's holding us back? It's easy to find 'bad guys', but what's keeping it all from not tipping into something else? A group of people? An idea? A story about who we are and the dreams we've been promised? Everyone has a different take, but are any of them correct? Is there ever only just 'one' thing? Does it need to be deconstructed as incrementally as it was constructed or do we just push it all over? How many casualties crushed by the debris are 'acceptable'?
Knowing more is knowing how much more you don't know.
I admire your candour and honesty, I find it intellectually refreshing. We're all in the process of to some degree or other of accepting how miserably we've failed both the youth and the ecosystem but I think it's important, especially to the youth, that we are honest about our failings.
Mark Brimblecombe a fellow Kiwi wrote this masterpiece.
I'm also going to leave this here today. I haven't even finished reading it myself, but it is epic, and sums up a lot of what I am referring to. Together, if we can talk like this, I think we can get somewhere, somewhere more real and useful. https://alexsteffen.substack.com/p/old-thinking-will-break-your-brain
A good review Andy. On The sound of silence... I keep coming back to the denial of unpleasant realities theory, the motivation behind this website https://un-denial.com/denial-2/theory-short/
We're so fucked when people like your good self who know we're so fucked can't break away from jobs that continue to prop up or at best tweak the unsustainability of modern techno-industrial civilisation when in my view the most impactful thing they (sustainability professionals) could do is to walk away on mass saying we're so fucked we can no longer pretend to play the game that we can save this civilization. But hopium, mortgages and the desire for "sustainable" holidays are in the way of this path for most I guess. Maybe that's a cynical view. I find hope in the garden and people gotta eat.
I am a member of a tiny but active freshwater angling advocacy group concerned about the rapid decline in New Zealand's freshwater environments and the concurrent loss of recreational and native fish.
It is self evident that the cause is over exploitation of this resource due to water extraction for irrigation and pollution from industrial farms and the factories they supply.
Despite this the farming press uses the term sustainability to describe the very farming practices that are proving to be unsustainable.
Unfortunately those making massive profits from unsustainable farming can buy pollution consents (as protection from common law liability for the harm they are inflicting on others and the "common" water that is supposedly owned by all), use their wealth to employ lawyers and professional advocates to maintain the status quo, and donate money to
political Parties. In the case of multiple farm entities there is typically Global capital invested with no interest in the future wellbeing of NZ. As an unpaid volunteer advocate try getting access to those who govern/set policy.
I don't have solutions, but the precautionary principle contained in the RMA is never applied.
Eventually, after about 15 years of rabid activism, I lost interest in new solutions. Your list nails it entirely,
"Traditional woodworking. Neo-pagansim. Reclaim the Streets. Non-violent direct action. Veganism. The Left. Anti-war. Eco-logical footprinting. Conservation. Permaculture. Rewilding. Cradle to Cradle. The circular economy. Doughnut Economics. Transition Towns. Conscious consumerism. Minimalism. Non-dualism."
The situation we're now in is not due to a lack of solutions. It may even be due to too many of them obscuring the fact that we already know what we have to do, and we already know how to do it. We just don't like what this knowledge means.
A valuable read, again. Thank you. Interesting comments about kiwi apathy and avoidance tactics. I share the same experiences, I am also a Brit who has been here 16 years. People do not seem to like feeling judged, blamed or associated with undesirable behaviour choices. My own attempts to write about the hard stuff have met with crickets.
Andy I agree with everything you say. Probably not what you hoped for but perhaps better than a void. My knowledge is nothing compared to yours but I am also a writer and once worked for several environmental and conservation groups. They broke my heart so I went and worked for a bank. These days I have lots of time to read, scroll and ponder. I am old enough to know I won’t see the worst of what I have helped create. That breaks my heart too. So I sort my waste, walk or use public transport instead of drive, offset my air travel, buy second hand and feel totally useless. It seems to me now that nothing short of total collapse of the current system is going to stop the environmental apocalypse. Selfishly, I hope not to see it.
(I wrote this before reading your latest blog about permaculture which rather pre-empts my comments. But I think what I say is relevant because it is not totally in agreement with you, even if we did use the same obvious metaphor!)
Thank you Andy for putting yourself out there so honestly. Sometimes, when one speaks the open truth, there is not much more to say beyond a limp concurring. But you do it so well—better than anyone else!
Reading the comments, it is interesting to see how many of us have a similar background: born in the UK but moved to Aotearoa; loving it but not totally fitting in. Will you bear with me while I share my story, because I hope you will see that it is relevant?
After living in Newcastle for three years while at university in the early 70s, I had to get out of the dirty city. I became part of the “back to the land” movement, buying and renovating an old stone ruin up on the moors. You know the story: chickens, veggie garden and basic income from self-taught craft woodworking; partner, children.
But Thatcher, the Cold War and the upland weather were too much for us. So we jumped ship, selling everything for a yacht which, after five years of carefree living in the tropics, brought us to Aotearoa. After some hard times exercising adaptability, the craft woodworking took off. Thanks to some good designs it became a profitable business.
This took me around the world to big trade shows, and it gave me a platform from which to speak about the environment. For twenty years I have done this, while also trying to implement my beliefs into the way I run the business. When I started out, I felt I was one of a few lone voices—that what I was saying desperately needed to be heard. This was especially so after a trip to Antarctica where I heard the scary stories that scientists were revealing but not publicising. I tried to partly justify my travel by using it to promote the environmental message and saying that design is only good if it is responsible.
But over the years I have found more and more people repeating the same things, while virtually nothing is actually being done. The message has been neutered: aware of increasing public awareness, big businesses have thrown bucketloads of money at making themselves look green (not to mention deliberate obfuscation). They sign up to carefully designed schemes that are just another business taking their money in return for an accreditation that allows business pretty much as usual. So Shell has the effrontery to talk about being carbon neutral by . . .
I have done some of these things too, with the best of intentions. Maybe—hopefully—it has helped a little; at least it has made me feel slightly better. We have also gone through the personal motions, trying to find a positive spin, doing all the obvious things we can like not eating meat and driving an EV.
But we now know that none of this is enough. So, it is time to jump ship again.
This time the ship we are on is the Titanic and we can see the iceberg (oh lovely irony!). But the ship is too massive, has built up too much inertia, is driven by power-crazy maniacs who, to protect their power, wilfully convince themselves that their ship is invincible. It will not change course or slow down—it simply cannot, it was not designed that way.
We need to grab a lifeboat and get off this madness, to put our lives in the hands of a small, nimble and unencumbered craft with which we can steer a safe course through the dangers and disasters ahead. Maybe the waves from the sinking ship will inundate us too, but at least we tried.
So let’s allow the Titanic to blunder its doomed way forward and talk about our small vessel. Or is it an ark?! This is not the 'solution' that you are seeking--as you say there is none. It is just a few scared people trying to do what they believe in.
“But I did expect people to argue with me. Nobody did.”
Yes - I have tried to alert those closest to me to what lies ahead. Almost no one seems to agree - or to disagree. So politely deaf that it is both saddening and maddening in equal measure.
I think strength to face such trials will come from unity. We don’t have even that, not really, if we can’t or won’t communicate about important, life-and-death matters.
Thanks for your words.
I agree with a lot of what you say.
As a fellow 'newcomer' in Aotearoa bringing French heritage and love of spirited debate I chuckled heartily at your description of the New Zealand tendency of conflict avoidance, and the (often unfulfilled) desire to incite some sort of passionate exchange of ideas about the big topics.. anything, just anything.. just care damn you! ;)
Questions drift through my mind around these themes all the time. Can we save "all this"? Are we up to the task, collectively? Does it deserve saving? Can we only save ourselves (and those closest to us)? or is that not ultimately possible if we don't save everyone? As saving literally everyone is not possible, how many is enough? Do we only try if we can have complete success or is 'fighting the fight' a worthy pursuit? Is all this macho male-focused war speak helping organise us like good Victorian-era men of duty or is it actually getting in the way? Does the sharing of good ideas only count if one is virtuous and above reproach, somehow untarnished by, and non-complicit in the system? What is 'actually' the thing that's holding us back? It's easy to find 'bad guys', but what's keeping it all from not tipping into something else? A group of people? An idea? A story about who we are and the dreams we've been promised? Everyone has a different take, but are any of them correct? Is there ever only just 'one' thing? Does it need to be deconstructed as incrementally as it was constructed or do we just push it all over? How many casualties crushed by the debris are 'acceptable'?
Knowing more is knowing how much more you don't know.
". . . a global mid-life chrysalis, where we break down what we think we know entirely, so that something wholly new can emerge. " Ever hopeful
I admire your candour and honesty, I find it intellectually refreshing. We're all in the process of to some degree or other of accepting how miserably we've failed both the youth and the ecosystem but I think it's important, especially to the youth, that we are honest about our failings.
Mark Brimblecombe a fellow Kiwi wrote this masterpiece.
Perhaps your readers will be interested.
https://markbrimblecombeblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/18/climate-change-and-the-mitigation-myth/?fbclid=IwAR3mK_ctEqGraDVVeP56hvg3qLs_9XL23ZlzU1gubdfVdmyiIB_lpBa2_t4
I'm also going to leave this here today. I haven't even finished reading it myself, but it is epic, and sums up a lot of what I am referring to. Together, if we can talk like this, I think we can get somewhere, somewhere more real and useful. https://alexsteffen.substack.com/p/old-thinking-will-break-your-brain
A good review Andy. On The sound of silence... I keep coming back to the denial of unpleasant realities theory, the motivation behind this website https://un-denial.com/denial-2/theory-short/
We're so fucked when people like your good self who know we're so fucked can't break away from jobs that continue to prop up or at best tweak the unsustainability of modern techno-industrial civilisation when in my view the most impactful thing they (sustainability professionals) could do is to walk away on mass saying we're so fucked we can no longer pretend to play the game that we can save this civilization. But hopium, mortgages and the desire for "sustainable" holidays are in the way of this path for most I guess. Maybe that's a cynical view. I find hope in the garden and people gotta eat.
I am a member of a tiny but active freshwater angling advocacy group concerned about the rapid decline in New Zealand's freshwater environments and the concurrent loss of recreational and native fish.
It is self evident that the cause is over exploitation of this resource due to water extraction for irrigation and pollution from industrial farms and the factories they supply.
Despite this the farming press uses the term sustainability to describe the very farming practices that are proving to be unsustainable.
Unfortunately those making massive profits from unsustainable farming can buy pollution consents (as protection from common law liability for the harm they are inflicting on others and the "common" water that is supposedly owned by all), use their wealth to employ lawyers and professional advocates to maintain the status quo, and donate money to
political Parties. In the case of multiple farm entities there is typically Global capital invested with no interest in the future wellbeing of NZ. As an unpaid volunteer advocate try getting access to those who govern/set policy.
I don't have solutions, but the precautionary principle contained in the RMA is never applied.