The First Global Revolution?
I came across this fascinating diagram in a 1991 report titled ‘The First Global Revolution‘ from the Club of Rome which is a globalist think tank that deals with a variety of international issues. Read more
The Art of Living Comfortably
When I moved to China from London I took a large pay cut and left the majority of my worldly possessions behind me. It was of course my own decision but a year later I’m not missing any of it. Surprise surprise, wealth and material possessions make little or no impact on your happiness. This got me thinking about the way most of us live our lives, and in particular after watching the “Story of Stuff” which tells provides some chilling truths about the underside of our production and consumption patterns.
You might be surprised to learn that 99% of what we produce every day is thrown out within 6 months where it usually ends up in landfill, and in the past three decades, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed. With China and India rapidly developing, turning new generations into mass consumers it’s clear that our current way of life is unsustainable.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in Shenzhen where people from around China come to get rich and spend their new found wealth on luxury clothes, cars and all manner of vice in sparkling high-end shopping malls bigger than it’s comfortable to imagine. While to get rich may be glorious for those whose parents grew up in very different circumstances it’s also destroying the world at an alarming rate and creating lifestyles which are going to be difficult to change. Most of the blame for this can be placed squarely on the doorstop of the US whose greed is unsurpassed and sadly still the envy of many.
"We don't like pollution, we need to survive"
For me I feel that a middle route is needed whereby we make efficient use of the resources we have left while developing new safe/renewable technologies to drive the future and to clean up the mess previous generations have left. This is going to require more modest lifestyles and a mind-shift in the way we behave and consume which is going to be hard for some to swallow but change doesn’t have to reduce quality of life. In fact I think quite the opposite could be true if we all made some simple choices:
- Buy less but buy good quality which will last longer and hence reduce the amount of waste produced. Buying cheap only perpetuates the cycle of replacement and poor conditions for factory workers.
- Recycle as much as you can and remember that your junk is another person’s treasure (i.e. you can sell or give stuff away).
- If you live in a city walk or take public transport. You’ll be getting fit while saving money and the environment.
- Wherever possible buy locally grown food and cook at home. It’s healthier and often cheaper than eating out or buying a ready meal.
- Work from home where possible. It reduces the pressure on public services, increases productivity and personal happiness.
- When purchasing electronics consider its energy efficiency, potential to be upgraded (as opposed to replaced) and recyclability.
- Avoid the temptations of special offers which only encourage more consumption and in reality save you little.
Whilst this thinking isn’t particularly revolutionary I don’t think we’re very good at articulating it so I’m going to coin a new word for this type of lifestyle: Comfotalism; defined as the middle path between consumerism, minimalism and environmentalism. This boils down to basically living a life more in balance with our natural environment without the need for composting toilets or any other hairy eco-warrior behavior! Free of the need to always buy bigger and better I truly believe people would be happier and less stressed – after all, for what other reason are you currently working yourself to death?
How would you fix the environment?
Every Coin Has Two Sides
People love to bash China over it’s human rights and environmental record which I don’t thing anyone can dispute is pretty abysmal. I’m sure what gets reported is only the tip of the iceberg but when you consider the enormous size of China, it’s long history and all the cultural baggage which comes with it I don’t find it particularly surprising. Social and political change is no doubt under way but it’s a long process which will take decades and probably wont be fully fulfilled until the current vanguard are long gone.
Photo by kmeron
This came to mind last week when I interviewed around 50 fresh graduates from Shenzhen & Guanzhou universities who were looking for their first job. I asked each group of students a question which we then discussed for about 15 minutes to gauge their level of English. Here are a few of the questions I asked (there were 20 overall):
- If you could change one important thing about your hometown, what would you change?
- Is it better to enjoy your money when you earn it or to save your money for some time in the future?
- What is a very important skill a person should learn in order to be successful in the world today?
- Which is more important for success: the natural ability you are born with or hard work?
I explained that there were no right or wrong answers; it was just a test of English skill, and while a lot of it was fairly mundane some of their responses were quite enlightening…
Many students came from poor country families who could barely afford to send them to university and spoke of their duty to their parents to pay them back for the hardship they had suffered to give them a good education. Many will be supporting not only themselves but also their parents and eventually their own family. Nearly all of them valued hard work over natural ability and were surprisingly individualistic about people’s ability to better themselves (not exactly communist). At the same time they felt a responsibility to the places they had come from and a hope that one day they could use their future success to help others who were not so lucky.
China is rapidly approaching that largest English speaking country in the world and by 2010 will have have surpassed 22% of the worlds English speakers. On the ground what this represents is a generation of highly skilled and motivated workers who just entering the job market ready, willing, and furthermore expecting to take the world by storm. While there are skill gaps this is fast closing as they assimilate knowledge from around the world – China is no longer just about copying, it’s about learning and adapting.
The worrying side of this is not so much the loss of jobs to outsourcing (this will happen but job’s will also evolve) but that we have been almost blind to a serious denigration of our own basic freedoms. Considering America’s post 9/11 actions and its highly biased media can we say that it is any more free or democratic than China? While the answer is probably still yes the lines have certainly blurred considerably.
With Americas influence and power waning the world’s landscape is set for a dramatic change in the coming years. Perhaps the strongest beacon of hope for a more moderate route is Barack Obama‘s impending presidency but we have yet to see how that will pan out. One thing’s for sure, we’re going to be in for an interesting century which will no doubt be fascinating and horrifying at times but never boring.
Poverty, pollution, human rights, food poisoning, product quality and eWaste will all continue to dominate the headlines about China but sometimes it worth looking beyond the negative. Every coin has two sides and nothing is more true of China which contradicts itself in every conceivable way so to stereotype would be a gross misjudgement of this fascinating nation.
To be continued…?
Words ≠ Actions
Looking at the submitted designs in the “Love Your Earth” designboom competition, for artwork to raise awareness about the environment, there are some are pretty cool entries ~ in particular these two which are very simple but effective ~ the left one was the overall the winner [via].
I can’t help that worry that “being green” has become fashionable for the sake of ones image rather than the sake of the environment (no, recycling does not justify your Chelsea tractor). Climate change has certainly gone a long way up the news agenda in the past year, which can only be a good thing, but at the end of the day actions speak louder than words…
Elsewhere… Here in the UK it’s finally iDay which sees the launch of the fabled “Jesus Phone” (their words not mine!). You know where I’ll be at 6.02pm tonight 