Be Aware - The worlds consumption and its consequences
If it comes to sustainability I often face facts and figures that I don’t really understand. I can’t picture them. They are too far away from my everyday life. What do I have to do with 6 million dying kids? I never saw one! But is this my fault? Am I a bad person now? Probably not – at least not directly. It’s the system and its rules we live by. But who made this system, who made the rules? Unfortunately, there is nobody (at least not by name, person, and time) to blame. The circumstances were shaped by endless political decisions over a long time (Martínez-Vela, 2001). Just think about it. If you drive into a tree with your car and your child, I can blame you for the pain of your child. Now, who exactly are we going to blame for the 6 million kids? You? Me? Trump? Lady Gaga? Obama? Bin Laden? The CEO’s of companies like Nestlé, Novartis, or Unilever? Think – Can we really point the finger?!
Try to picture that you are standing in front of a group of people on a sunny summer day and you are offering them delicious ice cream for free. The probability is high that they are going to accept your invitation. Now try to do the same thing by offering a small plate of rice for dinner. How many people will accept now? The described picture is the challenge that the world is facing in reality. A reality where a small group is eating ice cream, whereas a larger group is dammed to eat rice every single day. Is the small group really not willing to share some ice cream? Of course, they would be! If they would know, if they would see. But the groups are, not only physically, too far away from each other. So far, that thoughts like that would never come up while enjoying a delicious ice cream in the sun. However, you can still eat rice and even get ice cream for dessert. Just try to think a little bit differently about who to blame and who to listen to. Less as a preacher, but more as a human being (wfp, 2015).
How would you feel on the other hand, if you go outside your house and you would see a hungry kid on the street laying on the ground? I am not talking about the picture or some shocking ads you see. I am talking about the picture in your head, like the one below, just in front of your building on your street. Do you see it? Can you visualize it?
Let’s imagine that you are living in a small town with around 10’000 inhabitants. You get lucky and have the chance to be privileged, rich and enjoy an awesome living for the rest of your live. You are going to live in a house with a big gated garden. Since you grew up here, you know the area, and you know the people. Unfortunately, the economy is shrinking and people move away, just a few stay. It just takes few years and the area is overwhelmed with poverty. You are the only one with access to services and goods and you could easily help people to survive. Honestly, would you? I am sure you would! Even if that would reduce your well-being. Our structure is not different than that. The system is the gated garden, the house represents the ice cream group from above, and the people in the little town are the ones with the bad luck (wfp, 2015).
Simple math. We consume too much! There are 8 apples for 9 people and we clearly can’t manage to share (wfp, 2015).
But we don’t need to blame; we just need to think. Trust your own gut and ignore it if something or somebody acts contradictive to your instincts. We don’t have time to blame, we need to be aware. Because right now, after reading this post, 21 infants died! They did not get enough food (who, 2015).
Sources:
Carlos A. Martínez-Vela (2001). World System. Retrieved March 24,
2017, from http://web.mit.edu/esd.83/www/notebook/WorldSystem.pdf
wfp (2015). Hunger weltweit - Zahlen und Fakten. Retrieved March 21,
2017, from http://de.wfp.org/hunger/hunger-statistik
who (2015). Hunger weltweit - Zahlen und Fakten. Retrieved March 21,
2017, from http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/documents/levels_trends_child_mortality_2015/en/
Photo/Video:
ice cream: https://weblogtheworld.com/countries/northern-america/america/america_ca/city-sanfrancisco-bayarea/5-top-boutique-ever-so-delicious-ice-cream-shops-across-america
rice: https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g294265-d3571675-i231839870-Mai_Thai-Singapore.html
Kid: http://forum.mods.de/bb/thread.php?TID=185002&page=87
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfFWKi4364E
