Climate marches and my two cents.
Picture: Katrien Boon (www.vrt.be)

Climate marches and my two cents.

I've never posted here before but since I've seen over a 100 articles on LinkedIn about the climate marches in Europe, I thought I'd share my two cents on the matter. 

I would like to point out that demanding the government to take action in terms of systematically reducing emissions is essential to make the difference in terms of energy production, public infrastructure, ... BUT what about us as consumers? Doesn't the mentality of always wanting more/better for ourselves go against what we are asking from governments and institutions? Maybe we should first look inwards and think about: 'what can I do to make a change? And more importantly, what am I willing to give up to stop rapid deterioration of our planet?'

In school we were taught about Supply-Demand. Doesn't that extend to the consumer having the power to change the demand on what multinationals will supply? Doesn't the choice of the consumer and where they spend their money decide what the future will look like? If consumers put their money only in truly sustainable products and are willing to pay more for it, will that not change the industry that caters to costumers and in a grander scheme will force governments and institutions to bend to that change?

I would like to think that if we are going to start pointing fingers towards institutions/governments to drastically change their protocols and funding, we might as well do some self-reflection on ourselves first. Looking past the current popular marketability of 'sustainable products', we should try to be the change we'd wish to see in the world (Thanks for that quote, Ghandhi) by putting our money where our mouth is.


Robert Westerveld

Interieurarchitect bij MUURBLOEM design studio

6 年

It is always the government pointing at the people saying they need to do their part by consuming less, but one individual not buying plastic-wrapped veggies is not going to change demand. Neither does a group of hundreds of people when you produce on a global scale. What does decrease demand is the government banning plastic wrapping on fresh products, in fact decreasing it to zero. We the people can adapt to these regulations, even if it means losing our jobs because companies close down their factories. That’s the price we pay.

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