In May of 2006, I had the chance to attend the China-US Climate Change Forum hosted by the University of California at Berkeley. To an eco-geek, the list of speakers was star-studded with Nobel laureates, professors from top universities, famous innovators, and leaders from the business communities in China and the United States. The conference opened with the premier of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, just before it hit theaters. Before a university worker’s strike altered plans, Al Gore himself was slated to join the stage.
But it was a random guy in the audience who stole the show with a single insightful comment in the closing moments.
During the conference, speakers had argued the benefits of different types of solar panels; they had showed environmental progress from some of the world’s largest corporations; they had represented government opinions; and they had detailed the economics of climate policies. In addition to these positive developments, the evening wasn’t without some finger pointing between the US and China over which country is more responsible for climate change and which should make the first big move.
After the last speaker had cleared the stage the conference was opened to audience questions. Most drew out details from the speaker’s lines of reasoning. Then a slender man in a well-worn brown jacket stood up. With short, grey hair he looked a youthful sixty.
His tone was quiet and respectful. He said (paraphrasing), “For three decades, I’ve heard speakers say things similar to what I’ve heard today. Thirty years ago, they were called doomsdayers. Today, we know enough to respect their opinions, but we still haven’t changed our lifestyles. I take good care of my clothes and they last a long time. I have short, cold showers and I don’t own a car. These solutions aren’t complex. They’re right before every one of us.”
When he sat down, there was a moment’s pause and then the auditorium filled with applause.
The man’s point, as I took it, was though we should all take the initiative to push our governments and businesses to act in environmentally sustainable ways, it’s a two way street and the other side starts with individual action. In all the talk of the latest thin film solar technology and the goods and evils of corporate environmentalism, somehow even the great speakers at this conference had forgotten to bring the message home, literally.
Since then, I’ve also treated my clothes a little better, taken more short, cold showers, and lived (and well) without a car. You may also do some of these things or other things to help build a more socially and environmentally responsible and sustainable society. If so, I’m glad to know you.
Read More About Everyday Activism
Everyday Activism: Dining Without Disposables
Tips 2.0: The Nature Conservancy’s “Everyday Environmentalist”
Family Activism: Mothers and Children Want Stronger Climate Legislation
Five Tips For Talking To Your Children About Climate Change
Photo source: taufiq @ eyecreation via Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
What an insightful post. Nice to know that simple is still effective. Frightening to know that 30 years later, not much has changed.
Just wanted to mention that anyone who’s undecided on the principles of global warming should do a quick check on the actual amount that the IPCC is reporting that the world has warmed by in the past eight years.
Here’s a clue : Not as much as you might think.
Yeah genius! Global warming is just another load of crap. So take your cold showers and drive your polluting Prius’s you ignorant morons, I laugh my a** off at your arrogant posts every day of my life.
I believe that only a small percentage of the population has the integrity and discipline to voluntarily “take short, cold showers”. The cost of energy and the wealth of individuals will ultimately be what determines the amount that is used by most people.
Great job! I just read that since 1998 the earth has been cooling down. It’s working, were doing it!
Yes, we can posit every technological solution in the world, but the enviros will not be satisfied with any solution that doesn’t change human behavior. Wind turbines are bad because they might kill birds, nuclear is bad because you have to store the waste, putting lime in the sea to soak up CO2 or iron on the coral reefs is totally taboo. No, everyone has to take cold showers and bike 10-20mi to work. These enviros dismiss out of hand any attempt to make our industrial society compatible with nature without radically changing everyone’s lifestyle. And so I don’t listen to them.
Are you serious? This is the great pearl of wisdom?
Let’s begin with the fact that 30 years ago the “doomsdayers” were calling for a new ice age, not global warming. That alone should tell you something about the whole subject. But then let’s address this guy’s lifestyle.
Are we to call him a hero, the wise guru on the hill, because he takes cold showers and doesn’t have a car?
That’s not realistic for most people in the industrialized world. Let’s try again. Let’s work on drilling for more oil while investing in alternative fuel sources. And quit reading these articles! Do you know how much energy you’re wasting right now with your computer?
liberal bs, take your cold showers and wear old clothes, I am sure we will all notice a difference
not much has changed including our climate
Solar tech at Wal-Mart will change things. Throw in serious tax credits for families making the purchase and off we go green.
I live in the rural south, Washington, NC, and the local NASCAR/Pro Wrestling family needs more than warm fuzzy feelings to adopt eco kewl living.
you’ll post your sides opinion but not the others typical liberalism/socialism what ever you consider yourself mr moderater
Related Story: http://solargreen.tv/2008/06/high-gas-prices-and-bicycling/
Actually, 30 years ago the climate crisis was global cooling. Nice try though.
Wow, that was one of the dumbest things I’ve read today.
Why do you think people don’t already do those things? The answer is very simple, because humans are animals with animal instincts and animal needs. The most fundamental of human instincts is the need to seek wealth and status (thus establishing security for oneself and ones’ family), and with those things comes waste.
One human can do anything, even take cold showers, but the moment you think that you can influence a population against it’s own instinct for greed you have stopped being rational and have become a Communist. Communism doesn’t work because it goes against natural instinct and desire. The only thing we’ve learned from Communism is that humans will always find a way to get around it.
I suggest you go read up on a little understood theory called Capitalism. You see, Capitalism is a brilliant idea that basically says “You can’t stop humans from wanting, so rather than trying to stop them, let’s harness that greed and direct it towards social benefits”. Capitalism works specifically because it doesn’t tell people to take cold showers. Instead, it relies on the fact that when hot water becomes scarce it will also become expensive and so the human instinct to waste will diminish and the desire to improve efficiency (via means such as reuse, recycling, better technologies, social change, etc) will accordingly increase. In this way ‘greed’ is transformed from a bad thing into what we know as ‘demand’ while the resource in question becomes a ‘supply’. Thus, demand and supply work together to balance our needs with our desires and the constant struggle to meet demand ensures that society is constantly investing in the things we need most.
You say that 30 years ago people were called doomsayers for living their lives differently, in this case for living without all the material trappings that others desire. Well they clearly were, since if we look at the natural progression since then it is obvious that Capitalism is doing it’s thing. As gas prices rise demand has reduced; as the cost of burying our garbage rises our waste reduces; as the cost of generating electricity rises we have developed better renewable technologies; as the ozone layer eroded we changed our regulation of certain chemicals; and on and on.
Now, I can’t argue that it wouldn’t be nice if we could speed things along a bit in order to reach some fabled Nirvana of renewable energy and hippy ideals. Certainly we should encourage everyone to live a little less wastefully. However, there is no Nirvana, and there is no world in which we can all live without hot water and cars. So, since you clearly just don’t get it, please stop talking out of your ass.
One last thing, if you think that what that guy said at the forum had any more impact than some nut standing on a soap box in the middle of the street then you really are nuts. Or maybe, you were that guy on the soap box?
There’s no reason for short, cold, showers when solar hot water is as obvious as garden hose left in the sun, but his point is clear and needs more people to make some changes. With a little thought and investment, most of the changes are quite easy and often save you money as well – what’s not to like about win-wins?
If each one of us does our bit to reduce,reuse, recycle, and redesign our lifestyles and contribute to help inform, then the world will be a better place.
Mega
The phony corporate-sponsored “green movement” is not true environmentalism, nor does it address any of the issues of real environmentalism such as the clear-cutting of rainforest’s or depleted uranium or the mercury poisoning of the air from coal smokestacks or the genetically modified, chemically-fertilized and poison-sprayed frankenfoods we eat.
This “carbon footprint” crap is meant to you train you plebs to do with less as they continue to rape you with higher taxes, higher fuel prices and mountains of bullshit government red tape and regulations while ignoring the real environmental issues which go unresolved and unchecked
Carbon dioxide gas is a byproduct of natural cyclical global warming which has been occurring long before the rise of man. Global warming periods are followed by, and not preceded by, higher c02 levels in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a gas that plants breathe and a gas that animals exhale. Without it, we would be living on a very cold, bleak planet devoid of the rich and abundant diversity of life.
It’s time for the people buying into this swindle to yank their heads out of their asses, come up for oxygen and exhale some co2.
Cobblers.
So you’re solution to the environmental question is that everyone live like monks?
Can you think of any reasons why you this might not be universally popular?
Most people sain. but lease did
If the U.S. had chosen to be a moral people, and leaving Iraqi oil alone, and following Al Gore, decided to develop the South Western deserts, with the technology of the times – solar/thermal-molten sodium – electricity installations, for the same amount of money as that war cost, ($650 Billion), today, we would be tapping into the largest, renewable, sustainable, energy source the world has ever known. It would have paid every energy bill in the U.S.A. for maintenance fees only – FOREVER! It would be equivalent to an oil field that can NEVER run dry! Low cost electric power, and storeable hydrogen gasoline replacement from the electricity, for all!
After the millions of murders, and $650 billions of dollars, borrowed from our children’s futures and pissed away, with thousands of our own and others maimed and disfigured for life, millions of families utterly destroyed, ours and theirs, we are no closer to Iraqi oil production than the Iraqis are!
The next time you hear a blithering idiot spoiled brat, drunken, drug addicted, sociopath, rich Arabic saber dancing daddie’s boy oilman, stand at a microphone and threaten YOUR safety with someone ELSE’S weapons, remember what you lost America, remember, and weep! (also see http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan)
Why is everyone so eccentric one way or the other?? Look at the simple idea this guy is suggesting… He didn’t say “Everyone do as i do because i got it right, and if everyone was like me, the world would be better” He just made it clear that simple actions can have a positive personal impact, and the chance for a greater positive influence. The fight shouldn’t be whether or not Global Warming is happening, or if renewable energy is feasible, but rather, here’s my justifications… Go into your garage, and turn on your car without opening the door. It’s not very nice. Why would you want to put those gases into the environment more than necessary?? Pick up a styrophome container off your yard and look at the dead grass underneath. Why not try to use less? It’s so simple, not a huge movement of one type of people against the other. Do what’s practical, and stop making excusses for either side!!!
I do my bit by not showering often!
TO CHANGE THE CLIMATE WITHOUT ALLOWING NATURE TO DO IT, CAN DELETE ALL LIFE ON EARTH. ONLY NATURE CAN CHANGE THE CLIMATE NATURALLY, WITHOUT LOSS OF LIFE IN LARGE QUANITIES. AS IS MY GLOBAL TEAMS AND I ARE TRYING TO DELETE GLOBAL WARMING, SINCE ITS CAUSED BY ANOTHER SPECIE IN EARTH USEING THE ROTATION OF EARTH TO AUTOMATICALLY ACTIVATE EACH BEAM TO WEAKEN THE OZONE. DURING A SERIES OF SEARCHES I TOYED AROUND USEING MY TEAMS AND I FIGURED OUT HOW TO DEACTIVATE EACH BEAM. FOR 28 DAYS WE DEACTIVATED THE BEAMS =THE RESULTS THE GLACIERS STOPPED MELTING AND RETURNED TO FREEZING EACH TIME. ALL FRESHWATER ON SALTWATER FROZE ALSO. THIS IS WHY ITS SO IMPORTANT I DELETE GLOBAL WARMING MY WAY. IF WE ARE ABLE TO DO IT MY WAY, WE DELETE THE SPECIE CAUSING THIS PERMANENTLY AND THE INCOMING LARGE CRAFT THAT THE HUBBELL IS TRACKING FOR NASA IS THE OTHER SPECIES AND THEIR CULTURES INCOMING, ONLY THEIR ON A COLLISION COURSE IN DEEP SPACE. OUR BIG PROBLEM WAS THAT PRESIDENT BUSH KNEW FROM THE SCIENTISTS HE HIRED THAT MAN WAS’NT RESPONSIBLE, SO HE USED HIS CIA TO STOP ALL OUR EMAILS TO OTHER NATIONS AND ORDERED NASA SCIENTISTS TO LIE ABOUT IT, JUST SO HE COULD DESTROY ALL LIFE THAT HATES HIM, WHY? WHO KNOWS. WE WILL CONTINUE TO SEARCH AND WHEN READY DESTROY OUR ENEMIES. HAVE A NICE DAY. THE DISASTER SOLUTIONIST MASTER.