Let’s chunk up for climate change

Some time ago I wrote a blog on metaprograms and the value of ‘chunking’. In a nutshell, when dealing with issues it can be useful to change ‘chunk size’. You can look at things in more detail – chunk down – or you can consider the bigger picture. Both approaches have their value, and there are multiple levels of thinking.

As I write this, the world’s attention is on the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) and although I am not following it in detail, I definitely think this is a time for chunking up.

At all levels of society there is attention on what we can do to save the planet and our environment. From recycling waste to buying electric cars, many of us are trying to ‘do our bit’. There is plenty of evidence, sadly, that ‘our bit’ is not enough. Every little helps, but a lot helps more, and to do a lot, we are going to have to look at a bigger picture.

For us then, this means that we need to look at our expectations of lifestyle. We need to think about every aspect of our lives and question whether it is really necessary to live the way we do. The clothes we wear, the homes we live in, our communities, our work, our leisure, all need to be challenged. Is it time to stop keeping up with the Jones’s and just learn to be comfortable?

It isn’t easy to come up with answers, and actually making changes to the big picture is even harder, but I am increasingly realising that we have to do it.

Here’s a reminder of what can be achieved by someone with a vision to deal with environmental issues in a bigger picture from Neil Tomlinson of Aquapax

World Leaders need to chunk up too.

It’s not just us as individuals that need to chunk up though. As I hear the daily commitments and promises being made by Governments at the conference I am hopeful that they will be adhered to. But even if they are, we all know it still won’t be enough.

As big as the gestures to end deforestation, or to cut CO2 emissions are, they do not go far enough. They are still small chunks, compared to what we should be thinking and doing. Across the world we still all compete for space and seek the best for ourselves as individuals. We have to rethink that model, I believe. Some may say that is impossible, but like many impossible things, it may ultimately be forced on us when it is too late.