I was writing an e-mail today regarding a new illustration commission I received from the biodiversity alliance. I got a little side-tracked and this article is what came of it, although the illustration below is one I prepared earlier.
Yes we dance around and laugh and joke… at our peril. That is what we are doing as a civilisation. I do not think we should even have fireworks and such wasteful things unless we are meeting our targets for global emissions reductions (for example).
I’m not saying that it’s not worth talking about on your website, I just think that people have no choice left but to try to be happy and not get too sad about the state of the world… otherwise look at you and me… I suffer from chronic depression. I am sure that many other clever people suffer from clinical depression too. It is only by working at what we know is right in our hearts that we can feel better about what we are doing for the world. So I believe we must “be the change we want to see in the world”, be a part of the solution, not be a part of the problem. And to make it so that what we think, what we believe and what we do are all aligned. Otherwise, we are only fooling ourselves…
So yes unfortunately people are definitely “having fun while we roast ourselves.” But do we really want people to be miserable about our situation instead of ‘happy’? Miserable & depressed people probably cannot adjust and react to challenges as fast as happy people.
I think many older people are just “making the best of it” in the face of so many daunting challenges (and they really are and it is enough to make me not want to have children). I think a lot of young people are massively depressed because half of the older generation is still telling them what to do the old way based on the industrial model of business (sell more stuff, buy stuff because it is good for the economy, and money = happiness) and they are being simultaneously bombarded with mixed messages about the climate but I think many of them are feeling completely helpless. They are getting mixed messages (consumerism vs environment) and we are mostly stuck.
I think one of the reasons that the adolescent suicide rate has gone up is because of this (my sister who is a secondary high school teacher has told me so directly). I don’t think young people do all these ‘bad’ things intentionally; they behave how they were taught to behave, how society brought them up. I never questioned or considered the environment until year 9 general studies class. And then I heard about all these problems the world was facing essentially all at once…
One other problem is that the older generation is half-expecting that the younger generation will somehow come to the rescue and “save the planet”. How is that going to happen when the exact same mentality is being passed on? How is that going to happen when older politicians and wealthy people are essentially in charge? I think it is us older people who need to change first because all children naturally learn from role models.
What have I done? What do I do? Well, I have personally given up my only vehicle for example. I can still drive, but I share other people’s cars. That right there is one less car on the road. I even fly much less than I did before. I eat way less meat now. I compost way more things. I throw out far less things. I certainly buy a lot less things and I encourage other people to do so too. I also chose to give up my former business because I knew that it contributed to carbon more emmissions. So yes I am making changes.
Note that my real background is materials science, so no one knows better than me how and where we obtain all of our materials from. I think the onus is on people like me to say: “you know what, that is bad, I am not going to buy that.”. I don’t buy any presents anymore. I don’t buy things I don’t really need. I wait a month before buying something. Half the time I don’t end up buying it at the end of the month so I actually save myself a lot of money by doing that!
Another anecdote: I know an old friend from highschool –I won’t say who– he is a scientist and still writes ecological reports (I think). But he drives around in a 300+ horsepower turboed sports car. How is that in any way ecological? He expects or assumes that other people will change before he does. I think people like that are the ones that need to set an example for others.
If an ecologist or materials scientist won’t even change, then what chance do we have of changing other less-informed people? Almost none. I think we are the ones that need to change first. And I already am. Some laypeople in America are even saying global warming is a government conspiracy now (that makes me mad, which you may have seen on LinkedIn already. I call them out on it now. Especially people with no respect for a scientists’ education).
Getting back to mixed messages. Such was the case with my graphic design diploma. A lot [most] of graphic design is used to sell more products. They told us this. We even had to design an annual [financial] report! So the graphic design is even used to get more investors… and it is like this with almost every trade that requires selling a physical product. So a whole new generation of people are still being trained and taught to sell more, keep the boss happy, keep the investors happy, keep the board of directors happy. That is the main end goal.
At the same time, they taught us about “sustainable packaging” (yes at least that is a start but it is simply not good enough). It may be ok for the packaging, but how is the product itself sustainable? What if it is not? What about the business processes such as transport? Does an employee have the right to say “this is not an environmentally correct product, I am not going to work on this project”. I think all employees should have that right. In this country, if I say that to my boss in today’s age, I expect that would instantly lose my job. Instantly.
If more industrial designers said to their bosses: “I’m not designing that, it’s too cheap and junky” the world would be a better place I think. That right there is one root cause for you to address (materialism). Ecologists, designers, and others who are not ethical enough.
Let’s dig deeper. Why do all workers accept all jobs? It’s not because they don’t want to accept only the ethical jobs. And there’s more to it than their bosses simply wanting to “be bossy”. It’s because most employees have big mortgages to pay and are up to their ears in debt… that’s one reason. They don’t have a choice in the matter! No paycheck = no house. So people are being ‘blackmailed’ into doing unethical work because of their massive debts. That is one reason I do not like to get too much into debt, so that I have more control over my work options.
Why do people have so much debt in the first place? Well, because all the people that own real estate, like L J Hooker for example, want to make even more profit on all of the land that they ‘own’ (I use inverted commas because no one actually ‘owns’ anything; I find the concept a little strange– how can anyone make a claim to individual atom ownership for example?) So they, along with banks, could lower rent and interest rates and/or pay their workers more and distribute their wealth more evenly. Do they? No. Why? Again, profit.
Why do people move out then? Well, in most Western countries, the nuclear family has taken over the extended family. But the latter is far better for the environment than the former. So some of us are forced out of our homes due to social pressures, simply because it is expected of us to live only with our main partners and not our parents. Right now, I am turning 39 and I have recently returned to live with my mother, who is 64. And I am not ashamed at all of this and we get on very well indeed. I think it is wrong to put our parents into nursing homes. I think that is just wrong on so many levels. It shows utter disrespect of/for our own elders.
One of the many underlying reasons I have prefer to work for myself is so that I can be more of an ‘ethical’ illustrator, working only for projects that have true merit. That way I can choose to work for other people in more service type industries like hairdressers, meditation clinics, and anything else to do with experiences that don’t affect the environment as much as direct consumerism. Because I would rather sit and draw all day long, which actually involves much more real work, than helping other people to sell more junk. At least I can sleep at night!
Another problem is that the ones like me who are ethical designers and not ‘corrupt’ are simply paid much less (large multinational companies like Coke & Pepsi pay way more than NGOs and there are also far more unethical jobs too choose from). What I am saying is that the current financial system rewards people for harming the environment more. This separation of money from the supply chain is one of the main reasons that Mark Boyle has given up money completely!
Airlines too actually reward people for flying with frequent flyer points! That is one of the highest contributers to greenhouse gas emissions right there! So the whole system encourages people to not care about the planet in any way at all.
I already know that we should be consuming far less until we all adopt a “cradle to cradle” mentality (no waste). We are even encouraging children to shop by supplying them with ‘mini’ shopping trolleys in places like Ikea and here at least, a big hardware chain called ‘Bunnings’. I think that is WRONG and we should be teaching them that less is more.
In the “hope for the planet” talk I attended last month, David Suzuki reiterated that we are all putting businesses (profit) above the environment and it should definitely be the other way around. So in that sense, the smart people try to think a bit more like indigenous people now. Again, the trouble is that the general population looks down on indigenous people as ‘inferior’ or ‘unproductive’. I too used to have this mentality. Here in Australia, Aborigines are still considered ‘lazy’ instead of ‘sustainable’. So we need to respect their original ways, and fast.
Leave a Reply