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The colour of
this web site represents the Sunset on Oil and the Sunrise
for the new Post-Carbon economy. In order to connect with the
mainstream we don't use a
'traditional' set of words or concepts. Hence you don't see
the words 'green', 'habitat', 'environment', 'ecology',
'conservation', 'nature', etc., on this web site. We choose more
mainstream terms such
as 'economics', 'food-supply', 'ethical', 'invest', 'price', etc.
Post-Carbon Living is simply not about the traditional minority
view of resource depletion. We go beyond the old ideas of
preserving wildlife and make a direct connection between the
choices we make and the near-future for US.
Our view is that environmentalism has been both a massive
success and a colossal failure. It raised awareness and won
every battle - yet still lost the war. Despite galvanising a
mass-movement, the late 20th Century saw the rise
neo-liberal economic policies the triumphed short-term
private profit over the long-term collective well-being.
Environmentalism has been identified with the Political Left
Wing - and worse. It has traditionally used emotive
arguments over economic facts. It depleted itself by
fighting a thousand battles over the preservation of every
possible species and every wildlife habitat. The public grew
weary of these million micro-causes that they simply stopped
caring and stopped responding.
So, when it came
time to save humanity, from itself, environmentalism was a
spent force. Indeed, this is not an environmental problem at
all. It is ours. Environmentalists self-marginalised
themselves by caring too much for the small issues whilst
missing the bigger picture. When a genuine threat emerged to
human existence no one was listening. The boy had cried wolf
just too many times. For those who were left listening they
just shrugged and thought "it is a problem for the
environmentalists to sort out". Or maybe the Government.
This leaves us wallowing in an ocean of apathy if the
changes required are collective, social and cultural in an
era when the individual is king.
The "new Environmentalism" must reject the old paradigms.
The modern "environmentalist" must embrace the free market
yet reject disaster capitalism (and learn the difference
between the two). They must find new clothes to wear and
find new words to speak. The platitudes and clichés of the
past are no good any more. The stereotypes have done too
much damage. Yet still they persist. Generations of
"conservatives" have grown up with a distrust of
"conservation". An entire cultural paradigm developed where
the masters of the universe no longer had to care about the
environment because the only messages they heard were from
pink-commie subversives - and they were not to be trusted.
It is time to start caring again. And believing. Not because
it is fashionable or this year's lifestyle choice. No, this
is not a choice. The time to care has been thrust upon us.
We will all rise to the challenge. Or perish. |
