Thread by @WillowA2

On a positive note - I have had some lengthy convos with people locked down in Sydney and Melbourne today and there are some potential upsides to the whole pandemic experience that might help save the planet too .... [thread]

There's a new appreciation for local places and community, for making stuff rather than buying it, for giving things to people who might use them instead of throwing them away. That's all part of lowering carbon footprints.

There are organisations who have discovered that holding events virtually means they get a wider range of people involved - new ideas, diverse perspectives - it makes events more inclusive and overcomes accessibility barriers including geography and caring responsibilities

when people are not travelling to events there is a lower carbon footprint - plus how many less throwaway plastic water bottles and other bits and pieces. It all adds up to less planet impact BUT also creates greater social inclusion = improved social outcomes.

Lots of people are happy to work from home or from a local working space rather than putting on corporate drag and driving into the CBD to park themselves at a desk in a massive shiny glass box. And those big, shiny glass boxes have a massive footprint. Not only that -

employers are discovering that actually people can be extremely effective and productive and engaged WITHOUT the need for the big shiny glass box. This is completely contrary to the commercial property narrative used to justify the big shiny boxes.

It turns out, many people do their best work when they feel safe, and connected and are taking care of themselves. When they have a home that is secure, nourish themselves properly, have regular conversations with friends and family by whatever means and feel part of a community

This is NOT what the 'marketing gurus' have been selling us all - but this lower impact life that is all about the personal, the human and the small scale is actually better for the planet. It means more people can have enough, instead of a few people having most of everything.

My banana bread theory of social change: the pandemic is not something we can control. It's a shitfight we just have to weather by doing our own personal good deeds. Like baking banana bread. We can control that, and get an outcome. Then we can say "wow, look what I did."

and suddenly everyone's talking about banana bread and sharing pics and the kids are doing it and Nanna drags out the CWA recipe book and shares that and neighbours leave a warm loaf for the family in lockdown and damn it felt GOOD didn't it? It was fun in a homey kind of way.

so.... let's just imagine our whole society is based on the equivalent of banana bread level actions. Stuff we can control, so we do that, and we share the good stuff around and celebrate all those small good things and it's kinda fun in a homey kind of way.

and suddenly, we all work out that the stuff we can make, do, change, share in our own little bit of the world is way more satisfying than spending an hour in a gleaming car battling traffic to park our designer-clad asses in big shiny glass boxes all day. So...

everyone looks to find their personal "sweet spot" where they have more of those small, local, handmade, heartfelt, homey satisfying, small footprint things and needs less of the expensive, throwaway, time-consuming, and draining stuff that we all got used to putting up with.

and that, my friends, is the gist of all the conversations I had today that started being about lockdown, and ended up being about how we can come out of this with a much better society and save the planet too.

Happy Friday tweeps. Stay safe. Stay well.
Love your earthly home.