#167: Should you be doing something else, something better?
On resisting productivity
Mōrena, and happy Tuesday!
A friend and I were chatting recently and the subject of “doing enough” came up. “I just don’t feel like I’m doing enough” she said, “I should be out planting every weekend, taking part in protests, writing letters to ministers… just more, but I don’t have the energy”. This is a woman who has dedicated the next three years of her life to a PhD on environmental restoration (I’d argue a highly impactful activity) but can’t shake the feeling that it's somehow selfish because there might be something else more, something “more” that she should be doing. When I asked her what these other things might be, she sort of shrugged and replied “well all of it”.
I empathise totally. I often feel like I should be doing something else, something better, something more productive. My news feed is live updating me on how everything is going from bad to worse, and I’m just sitting here… writing.
In my more sanguine moments I suspect that there is a broader force at play here, something that I think we should try to resist. Productivity, the measure of the efficiency of production of goods or services, is an idea designed to maximise profits. It treats humans like machines and the world like a resource. It is arguably one of the leading ideas behind the relentless speeding up of life which has had devastating impacts on our carbon usage.
Obviously doing nothing is not activism, but I do suspect that pushing back against this desire to do everything (often all at once) robs us of not only our sanity, but also the confidence and energy to do a thing well and completely. The desire to be productive can so often be paralysing – so much so that it almost feels like the point… a paralysed population can’t fight the status quo.
What would it feel like, I wonder, to give ourselves permission to just do the one thing that we can, the one thing that we are good at, or find joy in?
P.S For more on this idea check out How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell and The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
What can we do today?
The most-clicked link last week was the petition to restore the Southerner train!
🐝 5 minutes: All that glitters ain’t good
Have you ever looked around and thought, “what this country actually needs is more gold?” Probably no, particularly considering the grave hazards involved with gold mining. Think toxic waste, extensive use and storage of cyanide as well as the environmental destruction caused by opening mines.
Action: Sign the petition opposing a new Central Otago Gold Mine at Bendigo (just north of Cromwell).
Glyphosate, better known as Roundup, is a herbicide known for its carcinogenic effects in humans as well as being acutely toxic to fish, birds, insects and soil organisms. Manufacturing glyphosate also creates many many emissions. The government is currently considering an increase to glyphosate levels, something that is opposed by many food manufacturers.
Action: Sign Greenpeace’s open letter to stop the Government from increasing allowed glyphosate levels by 100 times more.
🐇 15 minutes: Get some standards
We’ve said it before, but this is the most impactful action you can do in 15 mins this week! The Regulatory Standards Bill will make it harder to take action on restricting polluting emissions - and easier to protect corporate interests (booooo). Now’s your chance to have your say: submissions close Monday 23rd of June.
Action: Submit using Greenpeace’s helpful submission guide and submission generator
💃🏽 30+ minutes: I, me, mines
Join a protest at New Plymouth District Council to urge them to formally oppose seabed mining in Taranaki. Whānangui City Council and South Taranaki District Council have already voted to oppose it. This comes at the same time as a New Zealand trawling vessel has just been found to have pulled up six tonnes of protected stony coral in a single trawl – the worst incident in a decade.
Action: join the community in packing the chambers on June 24 at 1pm at the New Plymouth District Council.
Events
Urgent public meetings have been organised in Ōtepoti Dunedin (17 June) and Wānaka (19 June) to inform and oppose the proposed new gold mine at Bendigo. Register here.
In case you missed it!
Over 25 international climate change scientists have written an open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon warning against the government’s proposed review of New Zealand’s biogenic methane targets.
Action: Send an email Climate Change Minister Simon Watts expressing our support for maintaining methane targets using our email template.
Wins!
Massive win – Bathurst Resources have delayed their application until at least November to mine 20 million tonnes of coal from the Denniston Plateau as a result of protests – showing that climate action does make a difference.
Queenstown Lakes District Council have been ordered by the environment court to fix issues with its wastewater treatment plant that was discharging wastewater into the Shotover River. Good article from RNZ here.
Farmlands (the farming co-op) launched a new product called FLEX which makes it easy for farmers to set up a solar panel system on rooftops (e.g. milking sheds, barns) and unproductive land (that's key - not encroaching on productive or arable land) with smart controls to reduce emissions, get cheaper power, strengthen resilience (e.g. in power cuts), sell renewably generated electricity back to the grid to lower the price of energy for everyone.
The government (!!) announced a new Solar on Farms package for independent tools, advice, feasibility analysis, and efforts to accelerate access to finance for putting solar and battery on farms. For any farmers in the audience, they can sign up for updates here.
Lawyers are suing the Government on their climate inaction - and it made international headlines!
That’s all for today, folks 👋🏽 Thanks for taking action. Enjoy this photo essay on farmers and fisher people in the UK who are choosing to work with the land and seas, rather than against them.
See you next week,
Cathy & the Climate Club team
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I love that you are bringing in the productivity dimension of our climate crisis and making the really-really-really-really-really important connection between the productive thrust of our globalised industrial consumer economy and our own internal compulsion to be doing more/better.
Of course we want to do good things in the world and there's the urgency that comes with that (y'know, when our own so-called leaders insist on shredding life for profit, Shane and David, etc). But I just want to remind anyone who knows they need to slow down or do less, and who is finding it really really hard, that No Wonder You Are My Friend.
We are living in the narrative longtail of deep colonial mindsets: ones of extraction, oppression, domination and fetishised production....including over ourselves. But we don't truly see how deeply internalised these stories are (because we don't talk about the ongoing effect of past social violence on our shiny modern lives).
I definitely do not have an "answer" as I am continuing to work (see: I said WORK?!) through this myself but I will share something that stuck with me from a wise person. They said: "The earth begins with you".
Our bodies are the earth, too, little finite planets of our own, so when we ravage them in the name of activism we are kinda innocently going against our principles.
A resource for people is Dr Devon Price and their book Laziness Does Not Exist speaks to tge construction of productivity very well... also can be found on lots of podcasts including a good episode on Upstream: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3bdqEgNmdhkQ0CjTOtllPz
Thanks again for bringing in this topic and I love your newsletter!
Good questions. I am constantly asking myself not only am I doing enough, but also enough of the right thing. So I was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful story from the German public broadcaster, which I listened to on the train this morning. I won’t spoil it, but it’s a lot to do with community. https://www.dw.com/en/breaking-the-chains-of-consumerism/audio-72888782