Let’s Talk about our Lifestyle

I find critical thinking, particularly about the way I live and the life choices I make, inherently uncomfortable. When I do the critical thinking, I invariably find that too many of the choices I make favour what gives me pleasure on the short run. My long term welfare, and the welfare of others takes second place. I suspect I am not unique, and I suspect this is why we all avoid this kind of thinking. The course of least resistance is certainly to avoid that critical analysis of the choices we make – too assume, and to live as if the good times we now experience will continue forever, and that our consumption has no effect on others. We would rather not think critically about our lifestyle – the lifestyle most people in the affluent West live, and the lifestyle most of the rest of the world aspires to. Yet, if we have any concern about the future of the civilized world, someone needs to think about the long term viability of this lifestyle. And, like it or not, since we live in a democracy, that “someone” needs to be “all of us”. That is hard and uncomfortable, because as we do that we soon realize that our lifestyle can only be justified by believing at least one of the following:

ñ    The  resources essential to our way of life will last forever.

ñ    The resources will last long enough for me and nothing else matters.

ñ    They will last long enough to find more and then those will last forever.

ñ    It's not my problem. I deserve everything I have.

ñ    We are doomed anyway and I can’t affect anything.

Wow! Really!? That's shocking! In fact it’s too shocking. So we continue with our denial.

A recent survey polled 9,000 individuals in 22 countries about their attitudes on energy. It found 90% were concerned by rising energy costs, and 76% by the prospect of shortages; 83% were concerned by climate change, and 89% thought it was important to reduce their country's reliance on fossil fuels. But barely a third thought they should be using less energy; the remainder believed their governments should find new sources, stat. Now doesn’t that say it all – about us.

Yet, yet, deep down we all know we need to curb our consumption. There is a growing interest in simpler living.

So let’s talk about it. Spend some time with us at Summer in the City. We will have a booth “somewhere” on main street and we invite you to join us for some conversation as to how we move this agenda forward in this city we consider home. Let’s have a discussion as to why a carbon tax would (or wouldn’t) be good for all of us. Let’s have a discussion about how a more energy aware set of building bylaws would lead to a better city.

We will also have an assortment of fact sheets and brochures you can take home with you. We believe that together we can make a difference.

Eric Rempel