It feels as if humanity and ‘our’ earth are manifesting ever more symptoms of a potentially terminal illness – the pandemic being the most obvious one, but also the now-all-too-familiar list, including ecological degradation, political failure of which Trump is a prime example and, of course, the ticking time bomb of global warming.  Like many others, I increasingly recognise a convergence of issues that once seemed unrelated and now seem inextricably entwined. 
 
It’s blatantly obvious that our systems and ways of living on this planet are unsustainable… and our response so far?  An unrealistic faith in incremental innovation to save us.  As Einstein is (apparently and ironically repeatedly mis-) quoted for saying, “the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting the same result”.  Solar panels and electric vehicles are great, but they’re not going to save us from ourselves.
 
As Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel winning behavioural economist, described in his theory of “loss aversion”, humans are much more concerned about preventing loss than achieving equivalent gain.  The implications of this are that those who ‘have’ in our global society will do everything they can, consciously or unconsciously, to maintain the status quo.  The cases in history of the peaceful transfer of power and wealth are rare and have always been prompted by the threat of unrest.
 
I would like to think that my motivation for participating in a peaceful transition to a fairer, more sustainable world is a purely moral one.  However, I increasingly discern an endgame which severely threatens my safety and security and requires my full participation to avert in my own interest.  The uncomfortable truth is that ‘First Class’ and ‘third class’ on the Titanic sank, and so did people of different skin colours, and so did men and women, and so did old and young. We are all in this together and the faster that people like me start making real sacrifices – of our lifestyle, our time, our energy – the faster we can course correct to avoid the (melting) glacier.