A sweltering, smoky summer has prompted Bruce Kasanoff* to call on intelligent professional people everywhere to push for a more sustainable society before it is too late.
Better, not bigger — that’s what we desperately need. Better quality of life. Better thinking. Better approaches to eating, living and collaborating. Not more people and more buildings.
The United Nations has issued its first major review of the science of climate change since 2013.
The study warns of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding, and a key temperature limit being broken in just over a decade. Yes, just 10 years.
Given my experience this northern summer, it’s easy to observe that such dire warnings are already coming true.
Recently, the smoke from California fires was so thick here in Utah (two States away) that you could barely see the mountains that are a five-minute drive from here.
The smoke was so thick in the air that what should have been a sunny day felt cloudy and dim.
Last winter, we had so little snow that the run-off that feeds our reservoirs was almost non-existent.
We are in extreme drought. The local reservoirs haven shrunken in a manner that is truly terrifying.
Yet, local officials are seriously considering proposals to expand development. Thousands of housing units are being constructed in the hills surrounding this little town.
We are actively building a community that is bigger, drier, hotter and smokier. This is irrational, crazy behaviour.
I bet there are similar stories where you live. We are obsessed with bigger, even if that also means worse.
It seems that the only thing we know how to do is to get bigger. More people, more buildings, more cars, more revenue.
One way or another, this is going to stop. We have a choice.
It can stop because we are an intelligent society that learns to focus on better not bigger.
Or there are so many fires, droughts, violent storms, and climate shifts that disasters drag us down, sink our economy and cause needless suffering around the globe.
Personally, I vote for option number one. How about you?
What does better not bigger mean?
It means we focus on growing our food through a better approach, using regenerative agriculture that keeps more carbon in the soil.
We apply better thinking to our buildings and communities, so that they use less energy to heat and cool.
We travel far less for business and stop thinking that economic growth is an absolute necessity.
In the meantime, each of us should stop waiting for others to act.
Each of us can construct lives that are better, not bigger. Start today.
*Bruce Kasanoff is the founder of The Journey and is an executive coach and social media ghostwriter for entrepreneurs. He can be contacted at kasanoff.com.
This article first appeared at kasanoff.com.
