Acting local gives back a sense of control

Through 2019, a diminutive Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg, took centre stage, chastising gatherings of world leaders about their environmental neglect. But suddenly, the conversation changed. Our eyes and ears diverted to the real and present danger of the biggest global pandemic since the 1918 Spanish flu.

The crisis was accentuated by the negligence of the world’s pre-eminent salesman disguised as the US President, Donald Trump, and others of similar ilk, who perhaps did us all a favour by showing how ignoring science could produce an outcome thousands of times worse than listening to it. The model of Ideology and bluster over science and strategy ultimately failed, as power was snatched from his grasp by - would you believe it - the ancient machinery of democracy.

Let’s hope the newly minted President Joe Biden heeds the lessons of COVID-19. As he sets the US on a new foundation of multi-lateral engagement, can we aspire to evidence-based decision making; to science-led analysis and problem solving for the just-commenced and UN-declared Decade of Environmental Restoration?

Many of us ponder these big picture issues and most of us feel pretty helpless - swept along in the currents of events and bereft of the power or influence to make any significant impact on them. I had certainly felt this over the past year. I could not see any entry point to making a difference until …. I began to think small.

The trigger for this was an opportunity to join the board of a small not-for-profit organisation focused on enabling humans to live in harmony with their natural environment.

The Mornington Peninsula and Western Port Biosphere Foundation is located in south-eastern Australia. It advocates for sustainable living in an area where globally significant wetlands abut prime agricultural land, some heavy industry and, of course, a rapidly growing residential zone fuelled by the region’s natural assets and a new-found discovery that it is possible to effectively work from home.

Here was a chance to contribute to the global environment and climate effort by narrowing my activities to an area close to home and recognised under the UNESCO Man and Biosphere program as having unique attributes to be properly managed and preserved.

The phrase, ‘Think global, act local’ attributed to Scottish town planner and conservationist, Patrick Geddes in 1915, is perhaps a little cliched now. However, my recent experience in working with this organisation has amplified the power of this enduring idea.

I have become involved in advocating for water stewardship projects, more sustainable development and, most of all, recognition of the important and contribution of Ramsar wetland areas to biodiversity, not only in the Western Port region, but around the world.

It is an involvement that restores a sense of control of your destiny - the capacity to preserve what you most value in the environment that surrounds you.

Unfortunately, it also lifts the veil on leadership built on falsehoods. How long have Australians been fed the line that cutbacks in carbon emissions in a country of our size cannot make substantial inroads into slowing the human contribution to climate change? It’s a nonsensical and cop-out argument because results will ultimately be driven by the sum of individual and community efforts, no matter how small.

There is hope in thinking smaller, but hope drives ambition, which sets goals and therefore accountability. It’s perhaps something a number of our political leaders want to avoid.

When it comes to building a sustainable future in harmony instead of in competition with our environment, we all need to become accountable. If you walk back the chain of my previous point, then you’ll embrace accountability because it implies hope and a sense of control.

In the context of recent events and those still to come, these are things that are definitely worth having and thinking small might be the most empowering thing we can do.