Thriving in the Anthropocene

I spotted a public lecture that sounded interesting, so I registered. As the title of this post suggests, it was about thriving in the Anthropocene, and would be delivered by Mike Berners-Lee (yes, a relation; the brother of the more famous Tim). 

When I walked in I noticed it was very well attended. That surely isn't always the case! But this man filled almost all the seats. And I even spotted Tom and Siobhan, and joined them. 

He is clearly a very engaging speaker! And he started out with explaining what the problem was. And that made sense, but I know that bit quite well. I wanted to get to the ‘thriving’ bit. 

At the end of the ‘what is the problem’ section he asked the audience to raise their hands, if they thought he was either more or less correct in his evaluation of the severity of the situation; whether he was grossly overestimating it, or grossly underestimating it. The vast majority thought he had got it about right, but there were at least 10 people who thought the situation was worse than how he presented it. And there was only one person raising his hand to indicate he thought the man was exaggerating. That was a brave standpoint!

Then he got to the bit where he explains how he thinks we can improve the situation. He said that there is toxic interplay between media, business and politics, and we should not put up with that. He gave the example of BBC presenters who have been found groping people or things of that nature, whose career is then over. And he said that even the people of whom it is clear that they knew about this and stayed silent see their career end. He said that that should happen as well in politics. He said that if politicians are caught lying, they should never be forgiven for that, unless they somehow redeemed themselves. I don't think there will be many left! But I also do know that a mentality change is possible. There was a time when no one wore a seatbelt. Now practically everybody does.

It seemed a bit simple; hold your politicians to account. You only get an election every five years. And what about business and the media? He did tell us to vote with our wallets. Don't support media that encourage us to stay on this collision course with fate. (Go to Bluesky!) And he used the example of the one bloke who raised his hand to say he had been exaggerating. It is difficult to do that if everybody else doesn't agree with you, but it can be done. So we can be the people who raise our hands to say that society needs to fundamentally change. And we can be the change. And other people can see it. And then maybe be inspired. And if we have critical mass, people might start to feel embarrassed if they are not on the woke bandwagon with us.

He only had an hour, and it flew by. I wish he had had more time! I suppose I might have to read his book. He's got a new one out. In there he will have enough space to go into a bit more detail.

There was time for a few questions, which generally focused on politics. And then the lecture was closed, and we all streamed out of the lecture room. 

Some discussion afterwards indicated that Tom and Siobhan weren't impressed. Tom summed up his argument as "the world would be fine if everybody stopped lying". And I see his point, but I also think it is a bit fatalistic to dismiss it. We are clutching at straws here! And what this man offers might not be more than a straw, but it's all we have. I say kudos to him. Keep speeching. And I will do my flawed best to make a small difference. Keep going to the Netherlands by train or boat, even though it is a lot more expensive and time-consuming than flying. (but still flying to Finland for my sister's birthday.) And supporting Bluesky (but still being on Facebook because I can't let go of my racing habit). Doing my frequent baking vegan, but still eating cheese. Et cetera!