Bringing relativity to change, bringing it to you (WWD ←→ WRE)
Why We Disagree About Climate Change by Mike Hulme (2015) insists that to solve wicked problems, (such as climate change) we need clumsy solutions. This solution requires that we pool together our different values, frameworks and voices, in order to work together and devise something that has never before been attempted. Hulme (2015) voices that we need to “focus on the long-term implications of short-term choices, that we recognize the global reach of our actions, and that we are alert both to material realities and to cultural values…climate change teaches us to attend more closely to what we really want to achieve for ourselves and for humanity.” (Hulme, 363). According to Hulme (2015), the clumsy solution is us.
Who Rules the Earth by Paul F. Steinberg (2015) advocates that to solve our wicked climate change problem, we need to change the institution (social rules). Although large scale change is the most effective, the responsibility still happens to land on us to make it happen. While policies reach larger groups of individuals, it is still up to those individuals to advocate for the rule change and comply to its set of restrictions. Steinberg (2015) asks us, “So the question before us is not whether change is possible. Change is ubiquitous. The question, rather, is who is participating in the process.” (Steinberg, 59).
Hulme (2015) and Steinberg (2015) both argue for a call to action that starts with us. We need to think outside the box and think outside of power. We need to educate ourselves and others on the problems, theories and disagreements around climate change. We are the key solution to solving our wicked problems.
Placing ideas and materials to a root cause (WWD ←→ MMW)
Why We Disagree About Climate Change by Mike Hulme (2015) underlines the various ways that humans view climate change through addressing the pool of influences on each individual’s character that have shaped their ideals on environmental issues. Taking this all into consideration, Hulme (2015) uses Cultural Theory to graph people in four different grid groups: Fatalists, Individualists, Egalitarians and Hierarchists. These grid groups rely on the degree of individual belief in social regulation and social contact. These assessments also connect each group to a environmental myth that is favored by those types of people. This system enables one to consider the factors that play into specific mindsets as well as assist in explaining the vast disagreement in solutions around the topic.
Making the Modern World by Vaclav Smil (2014) analyzes world consumption of materials and how the exploitation of them are leading to environmental issues. Smil (2014) does this through situating materials back to their sites of production, considering three hidden flow forces: Nature, Meaning and Social Relations. Most commonly, Life Cycle Assessments are performed to evaluate the burdens of production, reuse and performance of materials like aluminum and plastics. This system enables one to consider the factors that play into the addiction of over consumption as well as unveil some of the hidden flows that have created so many of our compilations.
Hulme (2015) and Smil (2014) both argue that situating places and tracing materials and ideals back to their source can prove as the first step in change. Too often today we attempt to solve large disagreements at the surface level, when in actuality, the real change happens when you find the root of the problem.
Realistic possibilities for change (AE ←→ WRE)
Austerity Ecology & The Collapse-Porn Addicts by Leigh Phillips (2015) pinpoints the root cause for climate change on our current system of capitalism. This contemporary writing criticizes our current class-based anti consumerism and localism as neoliberal, advocating for the rejection of ‘basic needs’ and ‘stuff’. Phillips (2015) emphasizes the need for a reconstructed government and the importance of acting at an institutional-scale instead of an individual one.
Who Rules the Earth by Paul F. Steinberg (2015) highlights the success of working with the government to create markets and reconstruct social rules in favor of climate change solutions. In order to change social rules (institutions), one must consider the three R’s that make them: roles, rights and responsibilities. Steinberg (2015) argues that that possession of power is temporary, leaving room to dispute it and internalize all externalities. His idea for creating change also calls for environmentalists and scientists to combine their urgency and skepticism and remain open to any/all possibilities.
Phillips (2015) and Steinberg (2015) both argue for the importance of thinking outside the restraints on the box for the best and most effective solutions. To affect realistic large change, we need to begin acting as citizens instead of consumers. “Changing the rules, in turn, requires confronting power” (Steinberg 2015).
References
Hulme, M. 2015.Why we disagree about climate change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Smil, Vaclav. 2014. Making the modern world: materials and dematerialization. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley.
Steinberg, Paul F. 2015. Who rules the earth?: how social rules shape our planet and our lives. New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press.
Phillips, Leigh. 2015. Austerity ecology & the collapse-porn addicts: a defense of growth, progress, industry and stuff. Winchester, UK: Zero Books.