Good luck bad luck

In the UK we have been bombarded with anti-Trump messages and we were stirred up into a pro-Hilary sentiment because she seemed like the lesser of two evils. In the US though many people felt the opposite way – that Trump was the lesser of two evils and he got elected.

The long list of evidence against Trump is compelling. He has had multiple allegations of sexual assault and child rape made against him. Trump’s promises include putting up a wall between America and Mexico, to deport all immigrants with criminal records and to put two fingers up to environmental concerns as detailed by The Telegraph:
In a deeply disappointing development for environmentalists, Mr Trump plans to cancel billions of dollars in payments to the United Nations climate change programs. He has said he would redirect the funds to pay for infrastructure projects in the US. He has also promised to lift restrictions on fracking and boost American oil and natural gas production. He would lift roadblocks to the Keystone Pipeline. Environmental activists fought hard to convince the Obama administration to stop the infrastructure project, warning against the effects of the increase in oil production. It’s path between Alberta, Canada and Nebraska in the United States was also said to damage fragile ecosystems.
This comes on top of Brexit which was followed by a spike in racist incidents in the UK and Theresa May’s decision to scrap the Department for Energy and Climate Change as The Independent reported back in July

The decision to abolish the Department for Energy and Climate Change has been variously condemned as “plain stupid”, “deeply worrying” and “terrible” by politicians, campaigners and experts.One of Theresa May’s first acts as Prime Minister was to move responsibility for climate change to a new Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

Sustainable gift wrap course
Where is the world headed? Is it a place we want to go and should we give up and lose all hope now? From this vantage point it looks pretty terrible, but we don’t know what will happen. What these changes will really mean two years from now, ten years from now, fifty years from now and whether we would have all been better off if we had made different choices is currently unknown.
At times like this I like to tell myself a story about good luck and bad luck – it is an old Chinese story about a farmer and his son and it goes something like this:
There was once a farmer who owned a horse. One day the horse runs away and the farmer says to himself – this could be good luck or bad luck. The horse then returns bringing with her a whole load of wild horses. Again the farmer says to himself this could be good luck or bad luck. His son starts training the wild horses, falls off one and breaks his leg. Maybe it’s good luck or maybe it’s bad luck the farmer tells himself. Soon after the army comes round conscripting young men into the army and his son can’t go because he has broken his leg.
The current situation we find ourselves in seems like really bad luck but can positive things come of it? I am in no way condoning the thoughts and actions of Trump and May or saying that everything is going to be wonderful from here on, but in the face of adversity sometimes people step up and do things that they wouldn’t have dared to do previously.

The US and British push on fracking against people’s wishes could be a game changer – there is a great story about an Australian town that banned bottled water in protest about a water extraction plant that was proposed to be built in the town. Once environmental issues are brought to people’s front doors they start to care a whole lot more than they did when they couldn’t see how it personally affected them. The community in Balcombe was united by it’s opposition to fracking and they became determined to switch from fossil fuels to solar energy. People in these places have been brought together by a common enemy, forming stronger communities and have now prioritised environmental issues which didn’t seem so urgent previously.

The surge in racist incidents could be seen as a time to reach out and build bridges between communities. Imagine you were on a train and you heard someone verbally abusing another person because of their appearance, the language they spoke or their skin colour. You could choose to look down and do nothing or you could choose to show solidarity to the person being subjected to the racial abuse and maybe even make a new friend. If it became common practise for people to stand by people being treated in this way, racists would feel a whole lot less comfortable being openly racist and people worried about being subjected to racism would feel safer. Watch the short video below to find out how we can all disrupt racism.

We don’t know how Brexit and the election of Trump will all pan out in the long run, but what we do know is that we all have the power and responsibility to to make our world a better place and it’s up to us to use it. 

Comments

  1. Love this!
    I think commercial forces will make renewables so competitive in the next few years it will make things like the Keystone pipeline project unviable – is just a shame that current political powers may delay the transition for a few years.

    Best of luck as always 😉

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