I was at the Greener Gadget Conference the other day, writing for PSFK (which published my polite version of events).  There was a cool group of people there and some cool shit discussed, but there was also an ominous tone initiated by keynote speaker Saul Griffith. He detailed how we can afford about another 2.0 degrees increase in global temperature before life gets really uncomfortable (mass climate-induced migrations, mass extinctions, etc.  See his great slides here).

Many of us roughly know the information Griffith displayed, but it obviously hasn’t settled in.  I think many of us hope that because it’s snowing outside, it means global warming is somehow a theory—a likely theory, but a theory nonetheless—and our behavior modifications range from none to superficial.   This failure to change, according to Griffith, makes us “hypocritical planet fuckers,” and I’m inclined to agree.

So how do we stop fucking the planet (and ourselves as inhabitants)?  The global trajectory in terms of adding these 2 degrees is horrifying—basically within 20 years, which for this 32 year-old is not encouraging.

A good start, Griffith said, is to reduce our levels of energy consumption by ten times. But how do we do that in a culture where we are looked at askance for refusing plastic bags, where flights taken to forage in rainforests are PC, where not having the latest iPhone sends us in to social exile?

To a large extent, we need to opt out of the system rather than work within it.  Fortunately, the current system’s ability to deliver a high quality of life has been seriously called into question recently.  It’s a ripe time to present alternatives; not ones based in contradiction and opposition to all that has preceded this moment, but alternatives based on their abilities to create the maximum amount of happiness across the planet.

During his presentation, Griffith decried the need to cut down on air travel; because of his extensive travel and businesses, he expends 18 kW of energy annually vs. 11 kW of the average American.  He said one way someone like him could greatly reduce his footprint is employ video conferencing as S.O.P.  I managed to ask him why he didn’t do a live feed for the conference and he looked at me a little sadly and seriously and said, “They wouldn’t let me.”  He vowed (hopefully in earnest) that this would be his last conference he’d fly cross-country for.  I also asked him why he continued to consume meat in light of its environmental impact (although he only does so once weekly).  He gave a few excuses that I didn’t buy.  I needled him further and he accused me of sounding religious (which I’m sure I did).  We’re all filled with contradictions.  We don’t practice what we preach.  We cling to comfort and convention rather than respond to crisis.

I think the first course of action in building an alternative way of life is stripping away everything that doesn’t work toward building the kind of planet that works for all.  Start questioning all of our actions:  each purchase, each gesture, each airline flight, each extra wrapper/packaging/sheet of toilet paper, each new or replacement gadget (check out the wonderful wattzon.com to calculate).  We need to observe and ask:  “Is this improving my life?  And if so, does that improvement come at the expense of others?”  If it doesn’t, we need to cut the shit out as best and as fast as possible.

This, I believe, is all we can do:  consistently reduce the contradictions between what we know and what we do.  When we start stripping away the contradictions, we’ll find a naturally occurring alternative mode of existence.  It’ll be a more streamlined, one stripped of the unnecessary. It’ll be an essential existence, filled with community, interdependence and craft, not gadgets.