This week I covered Climate Change in the university tutorials. I read one of the recommended texts in preparation and got a quite crippling anxiety attack. Not that I’m not aware of Climate Change. Indeed, I’ve been trying to do quite a bit to reduce my Carbon footprint by composting, grocery shopping in bulk-buy shops and drying laundry outside whenever possible – as some of my steps. Also, I don’t own a car, aircon or swimming pool. It’s not perfect but at least I’m trying.
What does Climate Change look like?
The text that I read was about the future we choose. It spelt out how, in 2050, it feels that you can hardly breathe because of pollution. Cities like Miami, Dhaka and Shanghai will be underwater. Large parts of the world will be desert. And basically, as my lecturer put it then nicely, we boil or drown to death. I might add that we might also burn as extreme wildfires will be taking care of that. Also, the shrinking inhabitable environment will cause social unrest with people being killed in uprisings or giving up with suicide rates projected to be very high. Lovely, hey? Nice topic for a happiness blog.
Thinking about solutions
I will be about 70 by then and my fear was mostly focused on my kids. Crippling, as I said. Took my breath away for a few days. So, I did what I usually do when I’m crippled by fear, I dove head-first into the topic. First of all, I read the text out loud in both of my tutorials which surprisingly helped me. Mostly, because I realised that it was (of course) a projection and not necessarily reality. Things can still be done to prevent or soften the impact. Then, my lecturer delivered a sarcastic but hope-filled lecture.
Also, I made my tutorial students come up with three solutions to cushion Climate Change impacts. They weren’t really innovative (tax emissions, plant trees, clean energy, public transport – all without real enthusiasm or detail). However, I suggested banning cars and food takeaways and reducing work hours so that people have more time to get to work and prepare food. Somehow that made me feel better.
Learning from COVID
As part of my lecturer’s class, she pointed out that many action steps seem impossible. However, during COVID a lot of seemingly impossible action steps were taken for the greater good. If severe actions to reduce Climate Change (hello car ban) aren’t for the greater good, I don’t know what is. Yes, banning cars and taxing energy, packaging and water consumption appropriately (including the real cost for the world) seems extreme. But Climate Change asks for extreme actions. We have exploited resources and our “right” to consume to the maximum, so it is time to pay for that.
Also, there is hedonistic adaptation. Do you remember how the COVID lockdowns really dragged you down? And then you got used to takeaway food, working in sweatpants and Netflix binging? That is hedonistic adaptation. We humans get used to things and find other ways. So extreme measures will give us all a shock but then we adapt and find other solutions. Now, you could say “in that case, let’s wait for that Climate Change in 2050”. Well, that could be the end though. So, it might be cleverer to adapt a bit earlier to ensure survival.
How does that relate to happiness?
So, how does that all fit into a happiness blog? Easy! Happy people consume more consciously (over-consumption is a major problem in this scenario). If you are happy, you can also appreciate things and life, meaning that you can lower your expectations of having the right to mass consume without feeling deprived.
Being happy means that you are engaging with an abundance mindset and it is easier to share and be generous. This is helpful when working out solutions in communities. You are also more accepting of change and able to adapt. Happiness also enables you to engage with fears so that you stop ignoring the problem and actively explore solutions. I’m telling you, happiness is really helpful! 🙂