Saving The Environment by Picking The Low-Hanging Fruit
Accomplishing the things that can easily and inexpensively be done now
The global consensus to combat rapid Climate Change has gained steam throughout much of the world over the last decade. With the general exception of those countries whose economies are highly dependent on the extraction and sale of fossil fuels, most countries now strive to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels and reduce Greenhouse gas emissions. Popular movements such as “Fridays for Future” and the fossil fuel divestment movement are also putting pressure on governments and corporations to move forward. One problem inherent to the environmental movement has, however, traditionally been the dogma that “doing something about the environment” means heavily curtailing the modern technologies and lifestyles that most in the industrialized world have become accustomed to. The often unspoken part of this dogma of sacrifice has been that the many billions of people living in developing nations like India, China, and Indonesia would never be able to achieve a standard of living similar to the one enjoyed by those of us who have the luxury of living in an industrialized nation. This is simply just plain not realistic, not fair, and will likely lead to inevitable failure, if the approach focuses too much on having less rather than having a comfortable and sustainable lifestyle that has a low impact on the environment.
