Time for a turnaround.
After long stretches of time sitting in front of screens, small and large, are we actually going to wake up to our part in this world and take some collective responsibility for our behaviors?
Individually we can eat less animal proteins, move more on foot/pedals/sails and less by fossil fuel burning. Also by not flying around as much and using more screens... But it feels like a merry go round.
Our small island's beaches will be under water in a decade or two. So much our only export. That means most of us here will have to emigrate since there is no reason and means to live here. No beaches, no tourists, no work, end of story.
Whom is left here should start yesterday to capture all available solar and wind energy and learn how to live in a much hotter climate. To find alternate ways of water management, much cheaper than our current expensive desalination process, must be of the highest priority.
Waste reduction starts at lowering overproduction and overconsumption. One major area of overproduction is our current level of government. 1 in 4 fte's are in government service. The other 3 are out of work thanks to the Covid induced collapse of the tourist industry on which our island relied on 100% the last 10 or more years.
The turnaround needs to transform the current Wasteful ways of energy, water and food consumption. We simply will not be able to pay for the Waste as we have done in the past.
A sailing blog calls for some a fitting metaphor:
The ship has sunk and is stuck on the bottom of the ocean floor. Dutch government aid will raise it... but the holes in the hull need fixing, the ballast needs to be removed, the sails mended, the rudder needs fixing, a new compass must be installed, everybody's role in keeping the ship afloat and making it go forward needs to be re-defined and polished-up for effective use. From teachers to cops to garbage processors. From physicians to public servants to ballet instructors.
If not now, when?
