Recent
reports have shown that climate change is occurring faster than scientific
estimates had predicted. Despite repeated warnings over the past 50 years we
have not managed to curb our addiction to carbon. In fact we have barely started
to take any real action. In the next several weeks I will be developing and
sharing with you a 12 Step Carbon Recovery Program. Like so many things in life, most of us have
to hit bottom before we are ready to make real life changes. Will hitting
bottom require us to go through major environmental crisis or can we take
charge of our own carbon addiction after careful scrutiny of our carbon
footprint?
Thomas
Berry coined the term Ecozoic Era for the challenging era we are confronted
with as a result of our addiction to the burning of fossil fuels. Berry
compares the current climate change challenge before us with Earth’s two
greatest mass extinction eras: the Paleozoic Era and the Mesozoic Era, and proposes
that a “degraded earth produces degraded people.” We are challenged to take personal
responsibility in climate change and enact positive changes that will
contribute toward mitigation of, and adaptation to this new climate.
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| This is me enjoying nature at Big Bear, California. |
I
have chosen the 12 step recovery framework as developed by successful addiction
recovery groups to model the Carbon Recovery 12.0 Program. The steps will
include coming to realization about the depth and breadth of carbon addiction, reconnecting
with the environment, taking a carbon footprint inventory, identifying who, what,
when, where and how carbon addiction causes harm, making amends in real ways through
mindful systemic change, and spreading the word through local “Meetups”, social
media sharing of personal stories, and starting local 12.0 groups. Intervention
will also be touched on as a way to push heavy carbon users and climate change deniers
towards taking a real look at the scientific evidence that unequivocally shows
that burning fossil fuels is the major contributor to current changes in our
environment.
This
week I will share the first three steps along with my own personal
journey. Please also join the new
Meetup, Pittsburgh Environmentalist 12.0, to participate in the program and
check back in the next weeks as the journey continues. I will begin at a grass
root level with a website and will employ social media to build base support. This
program is being offered as a pilot project to local environmental
organizations and civic groups of which I am an active member. I encourage you
to go through this process with me, or simply follow my journey.
Step One:
We admitted that we were addicted to carbon-based energy and our lives
have become un-sustainable.
When I read
the latest report on the state of global warming I have to admit that my first
and second emotions were fear and helplessness.
How can one person make a dent in the major climate change issues our
world now faces? It feels rather akin to
attempting to turn back the hands of time; an impossible task. But once the deer in the headlights stage
passed, I began to pull up my bootstraps.
I began to look at my personal contributions on a daily basis to the
problem; I saw that just like the layers of an onion, my own mindless carbon
addictions are multi-layered. Once I peeled one layer back, I exposed yet
another. I can see that I am living as a
“taker” on this earth, and as Ishmael wrote so insightfully, "The Takers'
story is 'The world belongs to man.' ...The Leavers' story is 'Man belongs to
the world.'". How often have I
thought to myself, "I am running late, and although I had planned to walk
or bike to my next appointment, I will have to drive in order to be on time?" These cop outs do not allow me to take
personal responsibility for my footprint.
Step Two: Came to believe that Mother Nature will
continue to provide for us on planet Earth if we learn to walk lightly again.
When I look
at scientific evidence of evolution, it is clear that living beings can adapt
to environmental changes IF those changes occur slowly over time. The Gaia Theory,
developed by James Lovelock proposes that all living organisms and the
inorganic environment evolved together as a single living system and the
interconnectivity of these greatly affects the chemistry and conditions of
Earth. Earths ecosystem is intricate, balanced, and malleable; when humans tilt
the weight too heavily in their direction, all of the other elements on Earth
tilt, too. Isn’t it time to return to a balanced harmony with our environment? This is the essence of sustainability: to meet the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. (World
Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), the Brundtland Commission).
Step Three: Made a personal daily pledge to walk lightly
in harmony with Mother Nature.
So I have
decided to make personal changes in my life that will lessen my carbon
footprint and pass on this idea to others. How can I maintain these changes
over time? I see that it will take a
daily commitment to be more mindful. I will also have to connect with Nature on
a daily basis. “The Natural Wildlife Federation”
suggests that everyone get outside for an hour a day through its One Green Hour
program. This seems so simple, and the benefits of an hour outside are so
great.
Evolving a relationship
with nature reconnects us to the natural world.
Environmentalist Aldo Leopold wrote about the mind, nature, body
connection in his 1940 publication, A Sand County Almanac. “A land ethic
… reflects the existence of an ecological conscience,” he wrote, continuing, “This
in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of
land.”
Thank you
for joining me on this journey and I look forward to your feedback.
Resources:
Berry,
Thomas, The Ecozoic Era,Eleventh Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures
October 1991, Great Barrington,
Massachusetts.Quinn, Daniel, Ishmael: An Adventure of Mind and Spirit, 1992, Bantam Turner Books, USA.
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), the Brundtland Commission, Our Common Future, 1987, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Leopold, Aldo, Sand County Almanac, 1949, Oxford University Press, New York.
3 comments:
Bonnie:
I enjoyed reading your twelve step method and learning that you will begin your personal journey to reduce your carbon footprint. It will be interesting to see if you are able to get the "number two" person to join your movement. As demonstrated in class that second person may be the most influential to allow your movement to appear safe enough for others to join. I look forward to reading how others will react as you move through the twelve steps.
Jim
Bonnie, I really like the idea of "carbon recovery". I don't often think of it as "addiction" per see, rather a situation that each of us have become accustomed to due to external factors. Having said that, the treatment for the problem could be dealt with the very same way, and I think your 12-step program could be beneficial to a lot of people. By calling it an "addiction", you also put the social stigma on the problem, which could lead to more people becoming aware that we do, as individuals, have a real problem with our carbon footprint.
Your blog made me think of an environmental writing course I took in my undergrad and Indiana University that I wanted to share with you. My professor would have us read a lot of Native American short stories. A lot of the stories focused on the confusion, anger, and emotional distress of these people when they witnessed the relentless neglect and overuse of the world by European settlers. After reading, we would come to class and the professor would have us write about something in our own lives from the point of view of the author, and share the story with the class. It was my big "wake up call" for me, and the class was often very emotional for everyone. This was the time where my personal views on things like carbon footprint and sustainability became an active part of my life. This is just one idea of a "strategy" that you could use in your program to get people to accept responsibility. It worked for me! Good luck, and I look forward to hearing more about your project!
Quentin
Bonnie, your idea of the 12 steps for carbon addiction recovery is very clever. The title calls for attention and attracts the reader to see what is next. This framework that you are creating reminds me of a Sustainability Operating System (SOS) as applied to an individual. I enjoyed reading your blog but it was not clear to me the scope of the carbon addiction recovery project. Are you going to have goals and leading indicators for the completion of the program? I see one of the steps in your program will be to set a baseline using the carbon footprint calculator. Perhaps that is a good place to include goals. I would like to know more about the process you used to define the 12 steps for carbon addiction recovery. Is it mostly a description of your own personal journey or you looked at other sustainability frameworks or discussed it with a set of stakeholders?
It seems that you will engage initially the local environmental organizations to which you belong and that the target audiences for intervention are heavy carbon users and climate change deniers. Will interventions be one of the steps for participants of the program? If that is the case understanding the language of the target audience can help convey the message in a way that relates to them.
Thanks for sharing.
Erica Ocampo
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