Can We Adapt to the New Normal?
What I read: Policies for Adapting to the ‘New Normal’ of the Anthropocene by Andrew J. Hoffman, P. Devereaux Jennings, and Nicholas A. Poggioli. Published in Behavioral Scientist, November 14, 2022.
Historically, I haven’t exactly touted the market-driven capitalist system, but I’ve also more than once suggested that as awful as it is, no one has come up with something better. As happens sometimes, I’m probably going to have to eat those words.
It’s clear to anyone paying attention that rabid, unchecked capitalism has brought about an escalating climate change crisis along with a host of other social ills such as environmental pollution. We can’t keep moving along this trajectory. We just can’t. Change is a must or the planet and those who reside on its surface are done.
If you want to read someone who writes a lot about the demise of capitalism as we know it, check out Umair Haque’s writings. Sometimes he’s a bit over the top with his gloom and doom perspective, but often he’s right on target with his analysis.
Articles from Behavioral Scientist tend to get my attention, but this one grabbed me in large part because its message pertains to everything. What I mean by that is if we don’t adapt to the new normal of the Anthropocene, life will be more horrific than it might be otherwise, for everyone, and for all aspects of life.
The Anthropocene is a term coined by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in 2000. It describes the present geological time interval in which we live and acknowledges that lots of the conditions and processes on our planet have been and are currently profoundly altered by human impact. In short, we’ve messed up the planet and now we have a name for it.
While of course this is about climate change and environmental pollution, when we talk about their impacts, they touch everything such as where we live and how we make a living. Climate change has tentacles that will reach into every single one of our lives increasingly over time to upend our day-to-day existence. We can mitigate some of these impacts, but we can’t avoid them at this point. Humanity has damaged our planet enough already that a certain amount of horror and devastation is already baked into our future and the future of those coming behind us. Sadly.
But when faced with such realities, it’s folly to throw our hands up and walk away. There are things we can do to make life better on Earth. That’s what the article is about, how rampant runaway capitalism has directly contributed to the mess we now find ourselves in and what can we do to start fixing that.
In 2022, a four-year assessment convened by the United Nations came to a straightforward conclusion: society’s market-based focus on short-term profits and economic growth has contributed greatly to the crises we are facing within the natural environment, notably climate change, species extinction, ocean plastic waste, and other systemic problems.
The article utilizes institutional theory to dive deep into assessing what we value and what we believe, values and beliefs that are inevitably at the root of figuring out how to address the challenge the United Nations put before the world.
Western society adheres to a steadfast faith in market capitalism. This means embracing things like property ownership, the free market, shareholder rights, limited regulation, and unlimited economic growth. Wrongly, we have collectively believed that market capitalism always leads to a better society and economic prosperity. We thought that making money, even exorbitant amounts of money, is a good thing for everyone. We were wrong.
People have also been incredibly optimistic about our technological ingenuity to fix our problems. Especially since the Industrial Revolution, we’ve rabidly carved out a tech-fueled hyper capitalist system that served some of us fine for a while but is now poised to serve only the wealthiest and most privileged.
Given our choice, we’d rather continue to live our lives uninterrupted and unchanged. Somehow we’ve believed that if we let the free market and technology have unfettered reign, all will be fine. Nope. They are the problems. Our short-term thinking that worships at the altar of quarterly earnings and fat shareholder profits is partly why we’re in the mess we’re in. We forget the long view. Now we’re being forced to think beyond the next corporate earnings announcement.
Change won’t be easy. These institutions are entrenched and culturally sticky. They will resist, but change we must.
So, how do we unstick an entire society? How do we bring about the kind of societal change we need? Researchers have identified three approaches that catalyze such change.
One approach simply offers new solutions that fit neatly into the existing dominant value systems. All-electric (EV) vehicles is one example of this approach.
Another approach challenges institutions that support the existing value systems that got us into this mess. People-centric urban design is an example of this approach.
Yet another approach is a rough one to implement. It involves seizing the day after we experience major crises or disruptions.
Never let a good crisis go to waste. – Winston Churchill
An example I often write about of this last approach is how we quickly adapted to remote work when the pandemic locked us all down at home. Instantly the slow creep toward this much needed work life innovation catapulted ahead quickly to become widely adopted. It’s proven to be quite successful despite many in corporate management unfortunately wanting to micromanage work environments by calling people back into an office unnecessarily. Regardless, remote work is here to stay for a large percentage of the knowledge work population.
While the first two approaches don’t rock the boat as much as the third, all three are components of the solutions we need to implement to address our environmental challenges.
To that end, the writers of the article offer five social policies, many of which need to be bolstered and codified by legislative action, that can shift institutions and values regarding the market and technology.
We must encourage institutional structures to move away from using money as the golden metric for value and purpose. Shareholder profits must no longer be the priority. Companies must begin to consider the importance of social and environmental objectives. Plus, we need to abandon the idea that we can continue to grow our economy forever in the ways we’ve done in the past. Governments must levy stiff penalties on companies that knowingly continue to damage the planet.
Sustainable consumption must become how we function. We can’t keep gobbling up an unending flow of goods and services. We’re awash in stuff and the never-ending supply chain cycle that feeds our hunger for more stuff and services. For a great explanation of why our excessive consumption is so detrimental, watch The Story of Stuff.
The public must foster more trust in science, academia, and science-based information sources. Science is the best verifiable truth we have and we must base policy and social decisions on science and not the fake news or disinformation that’s rampant today.
Business leaders, in cooperation with governments, need to figure out how to stop the short-term quarterly or annual thinking that drives corporations to act as they do. We need a longer view, a view that takes into consideration the impact actions today will have on future generations.
Due to the new normal of the Anthropocene in which we now live, we’re going to have to deal with more sudden shifts. Flooding, extreme heat, damaged oceans, food shortages, horrific storms, and rising sea levels are some of the realities that we will be dealing with and they can deliver their wrath rather suddenly and without much warning.
We can’t live as we have thus far. Is your home in the path of frequent hurricanes or wildfires and the damage they create? It might be time for governments to assist moving people out of those danger zones and relocating them elsewhere. Rebuilding only to be wiped out again and again by rising waters, hurricanes, or wildfires isn’t a wise use of our resources and it unnecessarily endangers lives. We may need to enact these types of drastic policies if we’re to survive and thrive.
Changing the values that underpin our belief in the systems that are now failing us will be difficult.
By changing values systems, these policies will threaten closely held cultural, ideological, and religious beliefs that many people hold or benefit from. These policies will challenge the belief that market forces or technological innovation inevitably lead to positive ends. They will stir fears of centrally planned economies that challenges a free market economy. They will raise fears that people will lose freedom and stop taking personal responsibility. And they will compel resistance from those that simply distrust the scientists promoting them.
Smart, science-based, incremental, and transitional change can keep our planet within safe boundaries, even if those boundaries will still require a lot of social and individual adaptation.
We’ve been experiencing some of those unforeseen and sudden changes lately. COVID-19. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting ongoing war. The recent hurricane that hit Florida. There will be many more such cataclysmic and bumpy occurrences with which we must contend.
As awful as these challenges are, they are also ripe times for bringing about a shift in dominant value systems regarding market capitalism and technological optimism. If we don’t make these adjustments, our planet won’t remain within livable boundaries. We won’t avoid the worst of environmental damage that awaits us if we resist change.
When it comes to understanding what climate change and global warming will do to the planet, check out this PBS Terra video, What Will Earth Look Like When These 6 Tipping Points Hit?
Maybe the stark reality facing us as outlined in this video will spark the action needed. I can hope.
You can use this link to access all my writings and social media and ways to support my work.