WE don’t need telling that the world is in a horrible mess. What we need are solutions and, better still, pragmatic prescriptions based on sound psychology and effective economics, precepts that can ease society through the transitions we have no choice but to make.
As fellow of the Institute for Social Futures at Lancaster University, UK, Mike Berners-Lee is no stranger to the difficult questions of how we go about changing our lives to become more commensal and less parasitic as a species. But in his latest book, There Is No Planet B, he sets out to provide a set of lifestyle alternatives, both individually and societally: it is intended as a sort of Alexa to tell you how to live in a more planet-friendly fashion.
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The book spans the essentials of food, climate, energy and so on by responding to key questions. These range from “Given the global surplus, why are some people malnourished?” to “Should I go veggie or vegan?”, via “What are the fourteen things that every politician needs to know about climate change?”, and “Energy: What can I do?”.
He works hard to avoid the simplistic. Take his “Should I fly?” answer. It covers everything from possible electric planes for short flights to using solar electricity to create aviation fuel from CO2 in the air for long flights. Or you could always treat flying as a “very special occasion extravagance”.
The book is as jargon-free as possible to ensure maximum reach, while endnotes hold the details for the technically minded. Amazingly, it manages to make the complexities of planet-scale economic and environmental interconnectivity fun: a platter of potential doom, served with a smiley face and sparkler. And to underline the take-homes, every section has a summary to read before embarking on the rest.
“It is the age in which we have become big people on a small planet rather than the other way round”
There is also an alphabetical tour of concepts, exposing a dash of humour. Try his definition of Anthropocene: “The age in which we have become big people on a small planet rather than the other way round.” Or Greed: “A simple term for individualism.”
But for me, the conclusion is the part to reread because it concentrates on how to acquire what he calls the “thinking skills and habits that fit the twenty-first century context of enormous human power and technology on a now-fragile planet”.
This is the only mindset needed by planet-dominating primates whose approach to resource exploitation is still largely predicated by our Palaeolithic past. To get there, Berners-Lee outlines eight dimensions, from global empathy to self-reflection, from future thinking to appreciating the simple, small and local.
Of course, the list can’t be exhaustive. Nor is his book as a whole. But it is a bold, long-overdue try, and one bound to have great resonance, given that the slogan of its title is seen on banners and strips of cloth tied round the heads of Europe’s schoolkids as they protest the inability of powerful adults to deal effectively with our environmental crises. “There is no Planet B” is a rallying cry for a generation worried that they will inherit a world shorn of nature’s wonders and of the freedoms and opportunities we take for granted.
Buying the book and adopting its key guidelines and mindset will go a long way to ensuring the planet we hand on may just be liveable. Despite the visions of people such as Stephen Hawking, leaving Earth is not an option given the huge amounts of energy needed to propel us to an off-world colony. We will also lack the right technology for several hundred years to come. As Berners-Lee writes: “Whatever we make it into, Earth will be our only home for a very long time to come. There is no Planet B.”
There is No Planet B: A handbook for the make or break years
Cambridge University Press
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