David Cadman

David Cadman, “Just Being”, Quaker Voices, Volume 1, Number 6, October 2010:

The territory we are about to enter, the realm of a low carbon, low growth economy, in which the pain of resource depletion and global warming will be felt ever more acutely, will be difficult for us all. For the rich it will be the pain of rehab, the pain of giving up an addiction, the addiction of having, the addiction to growth and limitless consumption. However, for the poor it will be the fear of starvation, disease and death. If it feels uncomfortable in the temperate North, it will be unbearable in other less temperate parts of the world, especially in parts of Africa, India and South America.

In the short term, and assuming even no more than a 1C rise in temperature (and many now think it will be not less than plus 3C), between 75 and 250 million people in Africa will be at risk of increased water stress as the incidence of drought and desertification increases. If temperatures reach plus 2C, this may increase to between 350 and 600 million and up to 1.8 billion if temperatures rise by 3C, which could happen by around 2080. This means putting at risk a population equivalent to over eighty percent of all the people presently living in Europe or, at 3C, a population more than twice the size.

Whatever one thinks about the precise accuracy of forecasts of global warming, about climate change and Peak Oil, about what is being said about a realm of low-growth or about stories of those that suffer, together we are surely being told the task we face is daunting. In the rich world, we are being told that coming to terms with the costs of our profligacy in time – in time to avoid catastrophe – is going to mean enormous change in expectations, aspirations and lifestyles. For the poor and most vulnerable, we are being told their future is at great risk. Improving our housekeeping will not be enough; leading simpler lives will not be enough. Both are necessary but neither is sufficient. Above all else, we shall have to discern new ways of being, and we may have to do this in the face of growing instability, uncertainty, distress, fear and, perhaps, conflict – perhaps catastrophe. Whatever else may happen, and who can truly say what will happen, it is clear we are heading for turbulent times, times in which we will need to bring true discernment and love to these problems and to consider what is just in terms of our relationships with each other, with distant and more vulnerable neighbours and with Nature as a whole.

In the end, and especially since the 2009 Copenhagen summit, I have come to feel that although politicians will, given time, make further progress, we will have to walk around them and simply work with each other as directly as we can – for time is what we do not have. Somehow, we must start locally to build a global movement for change – one family, one community at a time, because in this way, at least to some extent, we can sit beside our neighbours and learn from each other. I have no idea whether this can be done in a way and in time to prevent great catastrophe. I fear it may not. I do not even know what it would mean in practice. It is an act of faith. But everything within tells me the means will give rise to the end. In working in this way together we shall be opening the way for the working of Love to do the best it can – and Love is more powerful than the mean-minded and self-interested skirmishing of politicians and bureaucrats locked in an old world. We may not be able to do more than this but if we do what we can then, whatever happens, we will be together when it does.