When faced with today’s challenges—climate change, inequality, needless deaths from preventable causes, and global conflict—it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But, tuning out won’t drive change.
Max Roser, a Professor of Practice in Global Data Analytics at Oxford, in his article ‘The Short Story of Global Living Conditions and Why It Matters that we Know It’, suggests that our collective brains and efforts are needed to transform our living conditions.
He makes the case that it’s evident from our long-term living conditions that progress is possible. (Reminder of Steven Pinker’s TED Talk, here.) And, importantly, Roser emphasizes that knowing what has worked in the past is a critical resource to help us make change in the future. For example, the infant mortality rate globally has changed from 40,000 preventable deaths each day in the 1980’s, to the current UN number of 14,000 daily child deaths from preventable causes.
There are three important questions that we should ask when we read about that progress:
- How did that outstanding progress happen?
- We must accelerate that progress. How do we do it?
- What innovations or new ways of thinking are required to stop preventable child deaths?
We can ask those three questions of any major breakthrough of the past in our communities, our country, or our world.
What do we do next? The next step requires collaboration. Freedom is impossible without ‘hope of freedom’ or faith in the minds of free people! If we don’t recognize our history and mistakenly think that things are worse now than they actually are, we may lose motivation to take action. If we believe that life is much worse now – then we will be less likely to get out of bed, pull our head out of the sand, and get active. We risk losing faith in what is possible.
And, most importantly, we risk the POSSIBILITY of building the collective effort to further transform our living conditions. (I already know people who are not reading the papers, etc. I myself even tried that for a while!)
Chris Anderson, head of TED, says that fear and outrage dominate headlines because they grip our attention. But emotions like hope and compassion can be just as powerful. One example that lifts my spirits is the work of the Foundation for Climate Restoration. They’re seeking and finding brilliant solutions to return the planet to sustainable carbon levels. They are learning from Brent Constantz, a scientist and entrepreneur who has discovered a way to create carbon negative concrete – which takes CO2 out of the atmosphere! Hearing about initiatives like this reminds me of what’s possible.
What if we shared more of these stories? What if we became “possibilitarians”—people who focus on what’s working and inspire others to believe in and help drive needed change? This simple shift in perspective can transform not only how we see the world but also how we act within it. The third in this series of blogs will discuss how we make that personal and global shift!
