Can selfish and selfless both protect us from Climate Change?
David O'Flynn, CEng, MBA, MSc
Posts represent my views - Sustainability Director at Teleflex
#climatechange: if those who should, won’t act selflessly, should we not be able to achieve the same result by getting them act selfishly. If both selfless and selfish act in concert, are we not destined to succeed? Are we accelerating towards catastrophe because we are unable to guide the trajectory of tailored messages?
We often talk about those that are least impacted by climate change are those that are most at fault, or those least at fault are most impacted.
I suggest that the elite, the rich, the protected would be na?ve to think that the status quo will remain in place, and that the threats posed by climate change will not shatter the foundation of their existence. In other words, no foundation, no wall is strong enough or large enough to protect against the metaphorical climate change tidal wave, that will come and come again, with each time being larger than the last.
I am no historian and I am sure there are much better examples than the French revolution, but this appears to suggest, if you push people and situation too far, they will remove you.
Climate change is coming, billions will be displaced and their lives made intolerable (at the moments it is 100’s of millions).?When life is intolerable, any actions you can take to improve the situation feels justified. When life is intolerable for enough people, no amount of privilege will protect.
So, if our rich, our elite, those with power won’t take steps to protect the vulnerable, how do we make them understand they need to take steps to protect some of the privilege they have and to take actions for selfish and not selfless reasons. How do we get them to think in intergenerational terms and be selfish for their children and grandchildren and not just of themselves?
[ASIDE: I suggest we waste no time on the truly selfish who don’t care about those that come after them, and only care about their own wealth and privilege as it may not be possible to reach these people in time if not at all].
Championing Sustainability Advancing in Industry
2 年Thank you for this thought provoking snippet, I agree there are two forces at work, I think the selfless want to act responsibly by emitting low carbon and on the other hand, they too want to live as if there is no carbon crisis, and take foreign holidays and buy new cars. Therein lies the conflict, our sense of life's purpose and our economies are still largely built around high carbon, selfish you might say, lifestyles.