If Not You Then Who? If Not Now Then When?

There are many important issues that we, as humanity, now face. Why can't we seem to tackle them?

@ecotrain's question of the week: If Not You Then Who? If Not Now Then When?

This week, we're asked to think about what it is in humans that stops us from acting in our own best interest against the big problems humanity faces. It is an interesting topic. An important topic. One with probably many answers and even more questions. I am far from an expert, but I'll try to give my two cents on this topic.

A few of our current, major problems stand out: the COVID virus and climate change. One a short-term problem that hurts us every day, the other a long-term problem not all of us notice in our every day lives.

Is it a lack of long-term thinking?

Climate change is a problem that will hit us all and it will hit us hard. When it will hit will be different for each of us. Plenty of people have already lost homes, possessions or loved ones to this problem, while others have only seen some extreme weather patterns on tv and might have noticed a couple more storms than they were used to. Some are afraid their homes will eventually be under water (me), others might be afraid of the ever-growing temperature, while many of us might also be afraid of food shortages or large amounts of climate refugees.

The thing with climate change is that it is mostly a long-term problem. Yes, it will be a huge problem, one we can't run from, but it doesn't happen overnight. This, to me, has always been one of the reasons I felt many people don't take it seriously yet. For most, it's a problem for humanity in some far away future (wrong), while right here, right now, they might just be struggling to even get through the week. To feed their family, to pay their rent, to care for a sick loved one.

If I am focussing on fulfilling my most basic needs today, I really can't think about a theoretical problem somewhere down the line. Something that is way, way bigger than just me.

Can't we think big picture?

That second part: "Something that is way, way bigger than just me" is probably another reason why people might be reluctant to do something. The climate change problem is so big, so overwhelming, so complicated, where should we even begin? And what does my switching to led lights even accomplish in the grand scheme of things? How could anything I do possibly make even the slightest bit of difference in a world-wide problem?

But what about them?

Which leads to a third reason why some people are reluctant to do something: It doesn't feel fair when you look at other polluters. Why should I make changes that affect my daily life, that cost me most of my savings, when they make such a small difference compared to, for example, another coal plant opening up in China?

I don't want anything to change!

People are reluctant to change. We are creatures of habit. If something or someone threatens our comfortable life, filled with comfortable habits, we tend to get defensive. We'll try to shift the blame to someone else, so we don't have to change. Change is scary. Change is hard.

What we fail to realize is that a small change, made by a million people, grows into a big change. What we fail to realize is that the more people set a good example, the more others will follow. We don't tend to think long-term. Big picture. We point our finger at other countries, at big companies, failing to realize that we, as consumers, hold all the power. Failing to realize? Maybe just not wanting to realize, because that would mean we need to change.

Is long-term really the issue here?

The reluctance to accept and act on climate change problems made me believe we just can't think long-term and that was the biggest problem. The COVID virus issues have changed my mind about that. This isn't a long-term problem. This is a NOW problem and a very big one at that. One that hits us all. Health care everywhere is overwhelmed and because of that, parts of our comfortable lifes are put on lockdown, just to try and avoid that moment where health care will be overrun and we will be piling dead bodies into the streets. We try to work together, yet there are still people refusing to take easy, readily available steps to fight this problem. People refusing to believe in science. People refusing to take a few, simple steps for the greater good. People pointing their fingers at everyone and everything but themselves. People hiding behind strong words while in reality, they are just scared.

Selfish people.

I no longer think long-term thinking is the biggest issue. I think selfishness is our biggest problem. Selfishness in more ways than one.

Selfishness in the way that we don't want to change anything in our comfortable lifes, as long as we can find even one single person, company or country that doesn't do their very best to change. Somewhere else to lay the blame, point fingers, so we can stay the same.

Selfishness in the way that we don't want to do what's good for someone else if we don't see a direct, positive effect for ourselves.

Selfishness in the way that a government official will think about how their voters will look at their actions, instead of simply making hard, necessary choices in a crisis.

Selfishness in the way that a company will put their bottom line above the health of their consumers and our planet.

Selfishness in the way that we hide behind traditions, our past, just so we don't have to face the harm we do to our fellow, sentient beings and our planet.

Mixed with a little bit of ignorance

Not everyone is selfish, ofcourse. Besides, selfishness can come in many forms, not all of them equally harmful. A small amount of selfishness can even be beneficial, in the way that you need to take care of yourself, before you can care for others. But a large enough amount of people is selfish in such a harmful way to screw things up for society, to complicate things, to divide us. Demanding freedoms without accepting the consequences. Demanding help without giving anything in return.

Which leads me to the simpler, more ignorant people. Those who aren't able to think big picture, to think long term. Those who aren't able to judge the validity of the information they read. Those who fell into the wrong social media trap of miss-information and don't understand enough to get out of it or even see it for what it is.

Those who simply fall pray to the selfish, malicious, loud minority. Unwittingly growing the ranks of the people that hold us down.

It's not their fault. Not everyone is created equal. But where is the silent majority to try and safe them? To put them back on the right track? To shield them from misinformation? To defend them against the selfish minority? To move them to our side?

Or are we maybe all too selfish, too ignorant, too pre-occupied by meaningless distractions to even care? Does anyone even want to safe humanity? Or do we all just want to live our lives and future generations be damned?

If not you, if not us, if not now, then how much longer can we last?

Simply put, I think humans are too flawed to either think ahead, or to put the need of the many above the need of themselves. Whether that last part is a good or a bad thing is up for debate, but I think this is why humanity will eventually be its own demise.

Tell us how you feel, foodie!

Sure! I'm glad I don't have children. I have already written off humanity and even though I am still eco-minded (I just love nature), I don't feel the urge to save our flawed race. I'd rather focus on saving innocent animals while we are still barbaric enough to continue abusing them (yes, I'm looking at you).

I care about nature and the sooner humanity fails, the sooner our earth can start to heal. I care about animals and the sooner humanity fails, the sooner we stop abusing and murdering them by the billions (For no good reason whatsoever. None.).

I know we'll take a lot of nature and animals down with us in our fall and I mostly just feel sad about that.

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P.S.: The pictures in this post are mine and not to be used anywhere else.