I was listening to a podcast called “Talking Politics” yesterday while trying to make art. Helen Thompson has written a book called “Disorder, Hard Times in the 21rst Century”. I have not finished listening to it but it was interesting to hear somebody spell out all the events that have occurred since I was still a child that have led to this moment. The dangers of an economy based on fossil fuels has been known since the 70s. The geopolitical dangers of depending on Russia for these fuels has been a concern since the 70s. President Carter tried to convince everyone to use less energy and that didn’t go so well. And we have known since Putin came to power that he could and would use our addiction to Russian Oil and Gas against us at some point. In the first part of this podcast Helen Thompson makes our years of failure to address a known problem very clear.
And yet here we are with our climate facing a tipping point that will forever change our planet and with millions of lives at stake as a result. Our addiction to a fossil fuel consumer economy has contributed to the West’s inaction with covid and with Russia. Nobody wants to disrupt their shopping, their travel, their entertainment, their “normal” to address the problem. We turn a blind eye to the problems caused by our addiction. Every now and then a politician speaks up about the importance of change. People will write and post about the dangers of fast-fashion. We talk about bikes and transportation alternatives. Some of us stop eating meat and buy meat substitutes wrapped in plastic. But at the end of the day most in the west do not want things to change as drastically as they need to. And covid and our reaction to what we needed to do and still need to do in order to stop it is the perfect example.
We see horrors in Ukraine. We change our Avatars and buy blue and yellow paper and make signs to pretend we care about Ukrainian suffering. But I suspect if we were told millions of children could be saved from death and suffering, if we just went 6 months with a very restricted carbon budget there would be tantrums galore among the people. Even when our health is threatened by a virus we struggle to STOP so we can protect ourselves and others. We are addicted to a “Normal”, a term that is being used a lot by those who believe we are post-covid. Our calling it “Normal” implies there is no alternative or better path. And worse this “Normal” fails to address the suffering our addiction is causing because we are just doing what is “Normal”. And how if it is “Normal” can we be doing anything wrong.
The image I made is of me looking and not looking at the citizens of Ukraine as they leave their homes.
