Walk the Talk : Somebody will follow  you

According to my Professor Friend, there are two types of sustainability enthusiasts. Those who only talk (Type I), and those walk the talk (Type II). (Please don’t mix these Types with diabetes !)

He said that the world is not changing the way it should because we have more of Type I around.

Perhaps he was saying this as he just returned after attending an international conference of Baku kind.

I didn’t agree with his argument as I thought we need a lot of Type I people too while more Type II people were indeed desirable. If you want to influence citizens of Mumbai (24 million people), we will require some 0.24 million (24 lakhs) people who will keep talking about sustainability for quite a while so that hopefully 0.24 lakh (24000) people start walking the talk. I applied logic of 1:100 ratio of success to arrive at these numbers. According to Professor 1:100 ratio was too optimistic and I should have applied 1:1000 ratio as the success factor.

I thought there are two main reasons why people do not walk the talk.

1. People believe they cannot make enough changes as an individual to make an impact towards this planets sustainability. So, they feel as though there is no reason to bother.
2. People do not feel close enough to their community to see that change could also be a community effort. Given the fragmentation of the communities today, especially in urban areas, people don’t bother to walk the talk to help the environment. They don’t even talk between themselves!

Professor said that I should add another reason to my list, which is essentially “people have more pressing issues to attend”. These issues could include physical health, mental health, addiction, domestic violence, caretaking obligations, homelessness, poverty, unemployment, chronic stress etc. Sometimes even just day to day chores and trying to live life to the fullest – people need convenience, cheap goods often resulting into unsustainable consumption.

Simply put – people are (usually) rational and (usually) allocate their limited resources to what’s beneficial to them. So while maybe most people do care, they aren’t necessarily willing to do the actions necessary unless it’s either just as easy, or almost as easy and not adding to their day to day costs of living, as the alternative.

I asked Professor, what we need to do is make sustainable options more accessible, put up barriers where possible to make the damaging options less accessible, and incentivize people where necessary.

Professor smiled. This requires socially oriented sustainable innovations supported by government, communities and investors. Adoption is critical.

Well, the other option (taken in parallel) was to raise people up so that they have the adequate resources, sustainability embedded education, and opportunity to make sustainable choices.

I looked outside the window. I knew that this was not going to be possible given our quest for fast economic growth, geopolitical tensions around the world and our inability to cope with climate change.

So will scalable solutions that are conveniently sustainable help? How do get there when we have more Type I and less Type II, Professor emphasized his point once again.

Professor made another point. Most think that whatever you can do as an individual is not enough to make a difference against large corporations actively extracting limited resources, polluting on a daily basis and practicing greenwashing. It’s difficult for people to have a hope towards sustainability after watching a video where entire truckloads of trash are being dumped directly into the ocean, or toxic waste being pumped straight into rivers, or melting of glaciers happening making the whales vulnerable etc.

On understanding climate change, many seem to think that climate change will not affect us too much. Bit warmer or different weather and that‘s it, no regard for food prices and droughts. People don’t care about loss to biodiversity and cannot imagine that the borders could just be closed if too many climate refugees come in.

There are also the people who feel it’s already too late and it’s not going to bother them anyway because they are  going to be dead long before the world turns into a garbage place and with choking gas chamber and no resources left. They’re not even concerned for their own offspring. Frankly, living in present is  more worrisome than thinking about the future. There is no time.

But, aren’t  we sick and tired of doomsday messages and all the things you are not supposed to do anymore in the name of “sustainability”?  Or maybe we just don’t want to be bothered?  And you are not alone.  When we tout about promoting eco-tourism,  a study by the Ecole Hotelier de Lausanne reports that more than 46% of consumers find nothing attractive in sustainability.  There are equally depressing examples in other sectors of economic growth.

But even still, there is some hope and we see potential to increase people and corporations in the Type II category. Nakul Ghai in his guest column “Walking the Talk: Building Narratives for Sustainability” talks about what could be done citing Sustainability in India as a case study of contrasts  He emphasizes the importance of active storytelling where we see sustainability in the walk and not limited to the talks. In this perspective, initiatives like Better India are indeed laudable. Leadership taken by News Channels such as NDTV are also praiseworthy.

Well while this is all fine, and absolutely essential, everything will finally boil down to the ethics. It is the ethics of sustainability or a commitment towards sustainable living that will matter. Aren’t we losing on this critical essence of our responsible living in every generation turning around ? It’s like holding sand in the hand where nothing gets retained in a short while.

Professor heard my musings. He got up and was ready to go.

Should I get you an Uber Professor? I asked

No, I rather walk home. He answered.

Cover image sourced from here