Thinking Smaller...

When species move out of balance with their ecosystem nature seeks to punish and return to balance. From the enlightenment humans have assumed a role as masters of nature; so-called anthropocentric thinking. The separation of humans from the rest of nature is, of course, nonsensical. However, it has been key in our efforts (in the words of McBurney) to stuff all of the worlds ecology into economics and it won’t go!

All of our worries about business and economics are really for nothing unless we hear and address what is a clear ecological wake up call to the fact that human behaviour is unsustainable. The idea that humans would destroy the earth was, as noted by Lovelock, always far less likely than we would destroy ourselves; sinking under the weight of our own hubris. Make no mistake, Coronavirus is simply part of a wider ecological alarm call.

We either find a way to reset the way we live and organise ourselves, as a species, or we will simply see more extreme weather, pandemic viruses and migration crises as ecological balancing measures conflate. Practically this means re-learning idea’s like stewardship, reducing, rather than expanding our economic reach, rediscovering the local and ultimately coming to realise that the qualitative is worth so much more than anything quantitative. All components of what the recently passed philosopher Roger Scruton calls oikophilia; where our attachment to the well-being of place and people is the source of identity, rather than the things we possess, the titles we hold or the people we can command.

Collaboration between people is a good step forward if we are to develop social resilience. At the end of both world wars efforts were made to reduce structural inequalities which were no longer socially sustainable and were seen to imperil social resilience. We have forgotten our own pasts and will need to rediscover, as we recognise that supermarket shelf stackers and delivery drivers make a contribution to society whose recognition with zero hours minimum wages is shameful and damaging to social systems. It can start with simple things.

As a child we received milk deliveries everyday from a milkman who drove an

electric milk float (open sided van). We would leave our empty (cleaned) milk bottles outside and he would replace them with new ones and was paid weekly. In addition to milk he could provide treats such as fizzy drinks on the same bottle exchange basis. Imagine if supermarkets had not undercut the local milkman. Not only would we have an excellent method for distributing food, without people having to congregate at supermarkets. We would also have people out in communities used to checking up on their vulnerable customers and providing a community service.

Similarly Romanians used to exchange bottles of all types, as many different products from beer to cooking oil all used the same type and shape of bottle. The euro-bottle vanished as multinational food and drink companies sought to reduce costs and complexity of logistics by replacing with plastic PET bottles or developing distinct bottle shapes as part of their product branding. A deliberate and concerted effort to replace what we need with what we want and undermining local networks, to be replaced by global brands, lifestyles and resource requirements. It is time to live lighter.

Local networks that recycle money within a community are far more resilient than impersonal larger scale networks of commerce. They may be less efficient, but the human commitment of local transactions provides a social resilience that goes beyond economic value. Learning how to reconstruct such networks is the challenge going forward. With my co-auther – Adam Bronstone, our recent book was an effort to start this. We are currently working on follow up case study book that can provide both examples and lessons in how to do this more effectively. I encourage all of you with the power to influence patterns of production and consumption to ask yourselves how you can contribute to developing shared resilience. For the alternative looks very much like a Ben Elton novel or a Hollywood movie. Only this time there is no Bruce Willis to save us all from ourselves.

Globe picture from:  http://ecointernet.org

Milk bottles from: Telegraph.co.uk

Lovelock J. (2007), The Revenge of of Gaia, London: Penguin.

McBurney S. (1990), Ecology Into Economics Won’t Go: Or Life Is Not A Concept, Bideford, Devon, UK, Green Books.

Scruton R. (2012), Green Philosophy: How To Think Seriously About The Planet, London: Atlantic Books.