There Is No Planet B
“When the challenges are so global, and each one of us so small, it can be tempting, but wrong, to think there is nothing an individual can do to help humans get a grip. To do so is a cop out.”
I was so happy not to have read this book before I thought up the section of Still Waters on becoming and eco-citizen. And I was even happier to read it almost immediately after my new website went live.
If I had read it any earlier I am not sure I could have found the concept of an eco-citizen, because I would have felt I was plagiarising some of his ideas. And reading it so soon after putting my own ideas on-line provided a huge affirmation at a time when I was feeling vulnerable about what I had posted.
There is No Planet B was written in written by Mike Berners-Lee (yes brother to Tim, credited with inventing the world wide web) and the second edition, including references to Covid, has just been published. It’s Berners-Lee’s third book, and makes use of his in-depth knowledge of carbon foot-printing coupled with some articulate common sense and a big picture worldly-wise understanding of the times we live in.
The reason it felt so familiar to me is that it covered all the four bases of the model I created for Becoming an Eco-Citizen. It’s got a lot of stuff on small changes we can make, provides a great deal of insight into the large changes we need to support and also is not afraid to describe a fairer, more sustainable system. I guess there is less on working on our mindset as a pre-cursor to all this action, but there are nods to the role of our own attitude and psychology. What is different is the way all this material is structured. Whereas I’ve opted for essentially a 4-box model, Berners-Lee has weaved a narrative flow through the big topics. The most useful thing I could do here I think is to describe the structure of the book and highlight a few helpful sections and excerpts.
After an introduction there are three chapters covering the biggest topics in depth; food, energy and travel and transport. Each of these topics asks and answers questions which the author believes we may have and then provides advice about what we can do, both as individual citizens as well as a more collective effort. These chapters are the heart of the book, taking up over half of the total pages, with most of the small and large changes listed therein. The personal actions are few in number, but they are offered in a way that make them powerful and yet simple. I’ll try to create a list here in the spirit they were offered in the book
Eat less meat and dairy, especially beef and lamb.
Make fish a once or twice weekly treat, rather than a daily staple
Find out more about where your food comes from and choose sustainable where you can
Vote for people who put the climate emergency at the top of their priorities
Buy things that have energy-efficient supply chains (local etc)
Get a hobby that does not require energy consumption, e.g. reading, walking
Don’t buy junk and make the good stuff last
Explore second hand markets – both as a buyer and a seller
Drive and fly less than you did
Don’t beat yourself up. Have fun reducing your carbon footprint.
The rest of the book explores topics in less detail, such as people and work, business and technology as well as more philosophical subjects such as values, truth and trust. One of the things I liked most about the book is the way it managed to combine extremely practical aspects of being an eco-citizen with some of the beliefs, theories and of course science that underpins it. The final two sections are worth checking out on their own – first there is a big picture summary and finally a couple of pages answering: “What can I do?” in a more general sense.
The imagining of a more beautiful worlds our hearts know is possible (Charles Eisenstein’s description) is done subtly throughout the book, which I found helpful because it reduced the chances of scaring or putting off readers who might connect less well with more radical ideas. For example, when describing the conditions for managing energy more effectively Berners-Lee says:
“…our species matures. We come to understand that ‘growth’ is no longer about getting more in terms of physical power. We learn to be more careful, to get our kicks without smashing the place up and perhaps even to be a gentler species. Anew, wiser humanity such as this would only grow its energy supply and usage if it were confident it could do so without adverse consequences.”
I couldn’t finish this review without name-checking a new word that I learnt that is a bit academic for me to use, but which had a powerful impact on me when I discovered what it meant. “Anthropocene. The age in which we have become big people on a small planet rather than the other way round. The age in which human activity is the biggest thing affecting the environment and the climate. We entered it recently* and it necessitates a big adjustment in the way in which we carry ourselves as a species – an adjustment that we are so far struggling with.” (* there is a debate about when we entered the Anthropocene, from the time of the industrial revolution up to the dropping of the bomb at Hiroshima).
And finally, finally, having said that this book has less to say on the mindset needed to be an eco-citizen I love this quote and will use it shamelessly going forward:
“I don’t always get everything right, but the point I am trying to make is that there really is plenty to go at, just in everyday life, and all of us can fairly easily get to the point of being well informed that we are broadly pushing for a better world through our spending and non-spending practices.”
PS. Writing this review inspired me to re-visit where I buy toilet roll and kitchen roll from. Watch this space for a future article on that!