Climate change? It is not me, it’s them.

2019 is coming to an end, anything new on Climate front? My personal view would be ‘Yes’ and ‘No’.

• ‘No’ as Science re-re-reconfirmed climate disruption scale and pace, extreme weather events grew in number as announced, committed Corporations reaffirmed their determination to reinvent themselves -even if louder than ever before-, and Governments often did not live-up to green citizens' expectations;
• ‘Yes’, as most Media dedicated much more space to this Climate series, its drama, its hopes and heroes; Yes as more of our colleagues and friends proudly turned veggie and found car-pooling super cool; Yes as just announced EU’s Green Deal seems directionally promising, even if a bit early to say; Yes as Youngsters have turned very vocal; Yes as ‘Meaningful & impactful careers’ have become Gen Z’s new Grail; And so much more worth appreciating. For all this, let us rejoice and anticipate 2019 will likely remain considered as a tipping point in the growth of our collective consciousness about the need to change and be bold.

This said, everyone knows our actual decarbonization pace is still much too slow; Another concerning thing for me is we witnessed a fast accelerating finger-pointing between generations, social groups, economies, or people even. 'Others' being made culprits. Let us hope such much welcome awakening won’t only turn-up into a ‘blame it onto the other’-game. This would tilt us away from the desired trajectory, and create dramatic tensions on the way. A dose of Blaming and shaming may last, fine, some of it may even be needed, fine, but this said what's really much harder is to actually ... change! And not only 'Them'. Now what ? (allow me to personalize through 'I', though I don't suggest this is a confession ;-) ...)

 What if…

…I stopped blaming this or that Government, already struggling to concurrently keep jobs, reimburse the debt, and adjust to a changing world; I had them elected or failed to have other voices heard,

…I stopped blaming these shareholders, Corporations, or Brands. We invented them, they try to stay afloat, I buy their stuff or strive as their employee to make them perform,

...I stopped blaming it all on Oil & Gas and other such industries, they let me fly cheap, drive easy, and gas heats my home for few cents a day,

…I stopped criticizing that country’s CO2-heavy energy mix, they strive to make my smartphone and PV panels at lowest possible cost,

…I stopped believing those stating I could only influence 25% of global CO2 emissions, and ‘Governments, Banks, Corporations’ should do the rest; Those did not really appreciate my ‘Power from within’,

…I stopped blaming ‘the Other’,

I am the ‘Other’

What if instead...

… I deliberately chose my food, my energy sources, my stuff, my leisure, my travel, based on their climate impact, as the digital world makes much of that info available to me,

… I made compulsive consumption ′Passé’, and low-CO2 the ‘New Cool’, as indeed few will actually admire me or Love me for sustainably ′binge-consuming’,

… I fearlessly introspected my own footprint and spotted areas where I am part of the problem, addressed each step by step, forcefully and joyfully,

… I selected my job -as much as I can!-or even created it, for its contribution to a common good, then improved it further from within,

… I always proposed to my boss the lowest-CO2 and most circular option, as I am paid to innovate, not to sustain statu quo, ain’t I ?

… I rolled my sleeves, and dared to forgive my neighbor for not yet rolling his’, as well as for his past CO2 emissions as much as mine. He will join in when he'll see the changing crowd. Climate decade is ahead, not behind.

In each of my roles (child/parent, employee/boss, citizen/elected, husband/wife/partner, shareholder/consumer, etc) what if I took the challenge to ‘be the change’?

It is not them, it’s me.