February 4 2010, 08:22 PM
Climate change is not an environmental issue
By: Sara Jeswani
Not my actual view, but very much like it. Photo: Per Ola Wiberg/Flickr.
The train between Uddevalla and Stockholm is very late due to heavy snowfalls, but those who still have a bit of patience can see that the landscape outside offers a stunning view, trees weighed down under the white crystals as night falls.
Climate and media
I am on my way back to Stockholm after talking about climate change and media at a regional energy conference. Asked to share a few views on this topic, I have spent the last days thinking about this, and have come to the conclusion that climate change should not be up to environment reporters to cover. This might sound a little provocative, but what I mean is that labelling climate change as “environment” in a way frees all the other sections of a newspaper from the responsibility to write about it. I would say climate change – and sustainability as a whole – is very much a social, economic, cultural, psychological and philosophical issue, as well as environmental. Imagining a society without fossil fuels, and a society in which we stay inside the planetary boundaries, involves much more than natural science.
Many questions
How will we transport ourselves? Will people be able to commute as much as today? What will happen to all those who have loved ones far away? Will we eat the same food as we do now? How will we even have food enough for everyone? Will status be a different thing than big cars in a world without oil? Being bombarded with alarming reports, how do we keep our spirits up? Even if natural science can teach us how climate change works and give us the emission curves we ought to be following, I don’t think natural science can answer all those other questions for us.
Meaningful waiting
Around me at the train lots of other passengers are waiting to come home, but actually there is much less frustration than I would have expected. Instead people talk to each other, something which does not always happen on a Swedish train. People have been asking me where I have been, and when I tell them they take a great interest in discussing climate change and society. Without glorifying train delays – maybe we'd need a few "empty" moments like this that could be filled with meaningful and spontaneous conversations about how to live our lives?