Week 3: Systems can be changed

Hi Climate Justice Ambassadors,

As we discussed in yesterday’s check-in, there are many systems around us that need to shift. It could be moving from linear, take-make-waste systems, to systems based on something more circular, nature-based, and even regenerative. Or shifts in the academic and capitalistic systems that would help us be more personally sustainable.

A great video that can get you thinking about systems is The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard. She gives a great perspective on the systems around consumption and waste. One very important take-away from The Story of Stuff, is that systems usually deliver what they are designed to – whether consciously or unconsciously. That means if we want our systems to deliver different things, we have to design them differently.

We often think of systems as stuck in stone, as the way things are. But they aren’t, they can change, and they have! Just look at the changes in the last century. Our co-founder Karen O’Brien, wrote a piece about how thinking of climate change and the systems that are perpetuating it as relationship problem, might open up different ways of thinking about how we solve it.

Donella Meadows, quoted in the image above, was a leading systems thinker. She identified and ranked leverage points for systems change, places where a small change could have a big impact. Her powerful quote above identifies how some of the things which are valuable and important for a sustainable and equitable future, are not easy to define or measure in our current systems. But it is important that we keep trying. What kind of systems would you like?

I have pasted the chat from our check-in below.

Enjoy the last week! We are going to dive into the personal sphere – the world of values, beliefs and assumptions, mindsets, and worldviews.

Chat from check-in Week 3:
Leonie, cCHANGE: Talk about the systems around your challenge e.g. the policies, regulations, laws that support it or hinder it. Who do you think has the power to design or decide the systems?

Plenary discussion:
Shandin: A newsletter that I subscribe to that you might like: the Green Fix https://thegreenfix.substack.com/?s=r&utm_campaign=pub&utm_medium=web

Leonie, cCHANGE: Shandin shared this excerpt from that newsletter: How much time with our family and friends has been lost in favour of the office block? How much of myself – my time, energy, my fractured sleep – have I sacrificed for a system that I don’t even believe in? The days spent exhausted at a laptop screen, the burnout, the rankling inequality, the trail of last-minute takeaway plastic containers: we know this is not the world we promised our children. But we also know how to leave it behind. Follow the solutions and all roads lead to climate justice. We must surrender. We must untangle ourselves from a life driven by earning and extracting and tailoring our LinkedIn profiles. Like breathing out, when you cut yourself loose from the capitalist rat race, suddenly everything is easier. Suddenly we have Enough. Suddenly there is time. In a green and just world, we have time. In a green and just world, we are satisfied. In a green and just world, we are free.

Keri Facer: Caring for yourself as an act of radical resistance – it’s from Audre Lorde – who is amazing.

Lauren Hennessy: But be careful because the capitalist system will try and sell self-care back to you 😉

Shandin: Tim Jackson also talks about the issue of time in capitalism and the issue of productivity driving all of us, even in fields like education and health care: https://timjackson.org.uk/lifeaftercapitalism-freshed-podcast/

Shandin: Good point Lauren. For me, it is spending time outside, not plugged into anything. 🙂

Shandin: Please if you are happy to share, can you send 20 or so words about your challenge and a photo for the UoB Sustainability team to promote this effort by the School community 🙂
Shandin: And get other Schools to do it!