The Elsewhere World

I’ve started to think of the whole #ClimateCrisis thing as an “Elsewhere” problem.

Our needs are increasingly fulfilled by Elsewhere.

The raw materials come from Elsewhere.

The innovation happens Elsewhere.

The waste goes Elsewhere.

The people who make things for us come from Elsewhere.

We believe that our jobs can only be found Elsewhere.

Here is boring. Elsewhere is fun.

Here is lacking. Elsewhere is Great.

Here cannot. Elsewhere can.

Folks from many parts of India are going to other parts of India. Others flocking to a few Cities. The rich — who can afford it — are sending their kids abroad, or even migrating themselves. The Chinese too are doing these things. Europe is full of immigrants. Many haves are building bunkers in New Zealand. Elon Musk wants to move to Mars.

Elsewhere.

The belief in one’s place, indeed the understanding of it, knowledge about it, connect of it and finally, the faith in it — these are at an all time low across the planet, across the species.

Our belief in Here is almost zilch. Everywhere.

As a result, our natural assets have dwindled everywhere. The breadth of skills and livelihoods and knowledge and opportunity have shrunk dramatically everywhere. There are numerous other outcomes too. Once your assets disappear, you look for other things. With nothing, you can only trade your calories for sustenance for the day. The polite terms for this are daily wages and the linked economic (distress) migration, sometimes swept under the larger euphemistic “upward mobility” which often it isn’t but in the exception.

Add all this up and there is no elsewhere. Climate change is not an accident that happened, but deeply connected to this elsewhere problem.

When (or rather, IF) we try rebuild our places, the natural assets there, the knowledge systems there, the biodiversity and the economy linked to it there, we will work within the bounds of what makes sense bioregionally. Everywhere, we have to figure out what makes sense here; ideas such as circularity and regeneration automatically show up as sensible, logical ones. Globalized trade and transport automatically shrink to a specific, smaller set of needs. Demand side starts to get fixed because you own and see the consequences. Life, ecosystems, livelihoods, options all get a lot richer for most, not madly more for a few.

The answer to a lot of our problems is in here, not elsewhere. The indigenous mindset used to understand this (I’m not sure it exists at scale today, irrespective of ancestry), but with colonisation at many levels, we’ve stopped belong to here, or caring about it.

We can’t suddenly be great custodians of the planet if we’re unable to be mature, sensible custodians of each little part of it. All those parts, to each of us, is here, not this mythical elsewhere we can continue being uncaring, irresponsible about.