The issue of climate change has been framed as one about how our economy can survive in an era of low-carbon. For me there is a deeper spiritual question we should be asking first, about how we treat the Earth. If we saw the earth as our mother, as our Celtic ancestors did and as many indigenous peoples do today, we would not have got ourselves into this pickle. How we might use this way of thinking to change our attitude to economics is an issue I have thought about and you can investigate further on this page.
The shallower but none thes less important question facing those concerned about the planet is how
we are to move our economy towards a lower-carbon system. Various groups and
organizations are working
on this from the perspective of energy, such as the Centre for Alternative
Technology individual energy audit, Bioregional One Planet Living, and the
Transition Towns’ Energy Descent Action Plan.
The figure, based on research from the Carbon Trust, shows how much of our emissions are coming from what source, once you take into account indirect emissions. These are the emissions that are put out in the country where the things we consume are produced, usually China, and during their transport. Transport-related emissions do not count in anybody's total at present, while all the carbon dioxide produced to make things we consume but that are made in China counts against China's emissions, not ours.
This makes it clear that the important next step is harder
to take, i.e. reducing energy use and carbon dioxide production by genuinely
recreating our local economies and ensur
ing that 90% of our needs are met from
within our own bioregion. Since so much of the CO2 that is produced is in making
and transporting things we buy and use every day without making this economic
transition we cannot reduce emissions by the amount required.
There are two conclusions here: first, our consumption of stuff is a major part of the problem; and secondly, the more of that stuff we can find closer to home the better. This transition of consumption from global to local seems impossible if you consider yourself having to take on the global corporations who currently dominate production and consumption. In fact, if we work at the local level this is not necessary but we do have to challenge some of the ideology of our current economy and ignore some of its rules.
For more on the transition to a localised economy see the pages on bioregionalism, and for an impressive idea for replacing the dollar with a global currency back by carbon dioxide see the page on the Ebcu.