How often have you thought deep in your heart “someone else will fix it”?

Maybe there is rubbish lying in the street, but you are in a hurry. Or perhaps you see a poor person begging and you think “probably they will spend it on drugs, somebody else can waste their money” and you walk on by. It could be that somebody collapses at a party and you think “well, I am not qualified to deal with that”. Or you see a hitchhiker and think “somebody else will pick them up”.

In the case of real emergencies, e.g. if somebody is being attacked, then there is an effect which occurs if there are a number of people around: The Bystander Effect. This states that individuals are less likely to offer to help a victim in an emergency when there are other people present.

It seems that there is also a global bystander effect. The writer of this paper, after describing in some depth the devastation that humanity has created in our world, says, “in spite of the fact that the effects of our actions on the planet are obvious we continue to deny responsibility and take no action”. In other words we are waiting for somebody else to fix the chaos.

Perhaps a fairy godmother?

The problems that face our world need to be “fixed” in order for us to survive and live a reasonable life on this planet. The same goes for much of our wildlife, and food-producing plants and insects. My feeling is that most of us are standing back and waiting for somebody else with “more power” to return everything to its previous form.

This is not going to happen.

We have to go forward.

Where do we think the “fixer” is going to come from?

Scientists?

The world is full of scientists of many kinds. There are climatologists, plant and animal scientists, oceanographers, food scientists and so on. Also we have many very talented technologists and engineers who work on renewable energy, electric transport, batteries, and recycling as well as many other areas. The work they do is amazing. Because of them we are well-informed about the situation we are in, and we are well on our way to converting the world to renewable energy.

But these scientists have not persuaded us to change our lifestyles. It seems that they cannot stop oil and gas companies from trying to get the last drops of fossil fuels out of the ground. The scientists have not persuaded large numbers of investors to stop pouring their money into projects that are destroying our futures. So, in spite of the work they do and the effort they put in to trying to get the politicians to act, they have not been successful in fixing the problems we face.

Business People?

There are businesses in the world that are working really hard to change the system, in particular renewable energy companies. The world has changed dramatically over the last few years, and there is now no doubt that this is the energy of the future. Prices have come down enormously and we have new technologies that would have seemed unbelievable in the past. It is not just energy firms that have changed. Many large companies are working towards reducing their carbon pollution, and are really committed to doing business more sustainably.

However, although they have been very successful in many cases, they have not changed how the average person sees the future.

Politicians?

In my experience many politicians think in the short term. Most of them tend not to think beyond the next election and how they will keep their seat. Also, many oil and gas companies work closely with government ministers to form working relationships. These relationships are often about tax benefits or changes in the law in favour of these companies. They don’t want change. So long-term visions for a sustainable future seem few and far between.

Investors?

This may seem like a better bet initially. After all, investors are in the business of making money, and many of them are beginning to see a good return from investing in renewable energy. However, there are still many of them desperately holding on to their investments in fossil fuels. These have been very profitable in the past. Like the oil and gas companies, many big investors have working relationships with governments that allow them better tax breaks and so on. So probably they will not be “fixing things” for us.

Also, although they may help in the conversion to renewable energy (because they can see there are profits to be made) we cannot expect them to come up with working visions of the future, or to help implement them.

Non-governmental Organisations

Non-governmental Organisations?

Many of these organisations are doing their best. They are protesting, bringing issues to their governments, trying to get protestors to act, and generally trying to help educate ordinary people in the problems we face. However the issue that they all face is that the world’s problems have become more complicated. Because of this many of these NGOs want to tackle the problems in a different way from each other. I believe that this splits their ability to do something useful. So they may be part of the solution but they will not fix the problem.

Other Groups?

There are thousands of different groups out there. They are working to help improve the Climate situation, loss of Biodiversity, or any of the other problems affecting our world. Again, each of them has their own plan to improve the situation. Many of them are doing a wonderful job. The problem I see is that they are all pulling in slightly different directions.

They might be providing running water in Africa, or protesting about the re-opening of a coal mine, or looking for funding for community tree-planting or solar panels. Each of these is important, but each one is aiming in a different direction. So they are not going to provide the momentum we need.

Communities

Communities?

These may well come closer to fixing the problem than any other group. People in communities working together for the future have already decided to live a different sort of lifestyle. A lifestyle that is good for them and good for the planet passes a message to other people that says “ok, this way of living works”.

So the work that many communities do is taking us a step forward. It is saying “join us, we may be living with less stuff, but we are growing our own healthy food, we have a purpose in our life and we are less lonely than before and we are taking action that will help the planet”. This, I believe, is very much the case with indigenous communities who love the Earth, and want to see her thrive.

But still we have no solid vision for the future that inspires people to act.

So, if not these groups, then who will fix it?

The answer, I believe, is “Every single one of us!”

Only politicians have the power to do what is required to change our world. They can raise the necessary finance, create tax breaks for technology companies, change the law, change policy and lead from the front. However, as I said earlier, Climate Change and the chaos it is creating does not seem to be top of their list of priorities.

It is up to us folks!

I have taken some hope from what is happening in America. The politicians there, right now, are truly dreadful. What they are doing is frightening. The opposition are doing nothing to improve the situation. But individual people and groups are beginning to fight back. It is slow and not nearly enough to deal with the situation. But it is happening. For me, there is a parallel between saving democracy and saving the planet with all its living inhabitants.

The Daily Telegraph published an article recently about pro-Russian leaders in Eastern Europe. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against them. We need people to care enough about the beautiful planet we live on to stand up and say so.

Americans are protesting in large numbers against what is going on there.

We have to want a better future powerfully enough to get up in our millions and fight for it. We can push our politicians into action. Let’s not wait until some terrible disaster occurs and thousands of people die. Let’s act now and leave our families a better future. One that works for everybody.

Nobody is going to “fix it” except us!

So we need to demand that our governments act. Certainly, we need to do this peacefully, but we must not leave them in any doubt about what we want.

Get out there and act like you’ve never acted before.

Our grandchildren are depending on you.

Thank you.

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Photos by John Cameron,Steve Sharp and William White on Unsplash