The Number One Cause of Climate Change That No one is Talking About
Don’t you find it interesting that when we lived simply with Nature back 1000s of years our planet was thriving… yet in the last 50 years we have almost destroyed the planet, and we are supposed to be at our most “advanced” in evolution?
So what changed?
Medical advancements have helped rid ourselves of many diseases, especially prevent deaths from broken bones or infections…. yet new diseases, obesity and other health issues are more prominent than ever.
Technology has allowed us to communicate with one another around the world in an instant, create rockets that go to outer space, and turn on lights from our phone… yet the technology of our own planet is starting its descent to an irreversible point of no return.
What’s interesting is that we actually have EVERYTHING we need to reverse climate change and it’s so simple! Aligning with Nature will help heal nature… regenerative agriculture and permaculture principles are just two philosophies that can help. If followed, we could find ourselves back in a world where the wildlife thrives, our health improves and the climate change issue, becomes one for the history books for our children.
So why haven’t we changed?
The number one reason for climate change is human behaviour!
We have created the most unhealthy habits that are not only destroying our own health, but the planet’s health as well.
Through natural instinct and following our primal brain, we are set on a course of destruction.
You see, we have two brains, the primal brain and the prefrontal cortex. The primal brain has three fundamental laws: avoid pain, seek pleasure & find the easiest way…. ultimately to survive!
This means we will grab fast food to avoid the time cooking, find the sweetest or fattiest thing for the taste pleasure sensations and throw the plastic rubbish on the ground rather than walk 10 metres to a bin. This sets us up for getting overweight and littering toxic garbage into nature.
The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that has goals and dreams, can see a world where we thrive together, can create plans to be successful. It knows it’s better not to smoke for our health, or it’s better to wake up and run in the morning. But the final decision maker, if we haven’t prepared ourselves for it, will be the primal brain! All our prefrontal plans will go out the window and the primal brain will get what it wants.
Whether your plan is to get healthy, contribute to making a difference in the world or becoming successful… the primal brain will default to its 3 laws and override your dreams and desires.
So how do we change? How do we not let our primal brains as a collective destroy us and the planet?
There are two ways that see people make life changing decisions and ignore the demands of the “2-year-old tantrum primal brain”….
- Being told You are going to die
Have you ever met or heard of someone that was told, you have cancer and if you don’t clean up your act, you will have 6 months to live…. and guess what? It suddenly empowered the prefrontal cortex plans to feel more important than the primal tantrums… you see , the primal brain follows its laws because it believes it’s keeping you safe, keeping you alive. So when you have been told the behaviours your primal brain is acting upon will cause death… it’s a no brainer.. excuse the pun! The prefrontal cortex wins and creates new habits that the primal brain now realised it must follow, so it doesn’t die.
Unfortunately, this isn’t working for most of our human race with climate change! We have literally been told that if we don’t change our behaviours in the next ten years, we will reach the point of no return and our planet will shut down.
According to David Montgomery in his book Dirt, there were many civilisations that collapsed and it was simply because they over farmed their land , it turned into dust and they all perished. Back then it was pockets of civilisations…. right now as a globe we are doing the same on a larger scale, in every corner of the planet, and will collectively destroy the earth!
The planet has cancer and we need to change our behaviours or it will start to die in ten years.
Unfortunately, “in ten years” sounds to the primal brain… “aaah we’ve got time”. However, it will take at least this time to shift these behaviours globally, to shift the consumerism, the capitalism to align with nature. If you don’t start now… you will die. It’s not powerful enough, nor personal enough to change everyone’s behaviours! And the problem is, when it becomes more personal… it’s hard to breathe the air, or the forests have gone… it’s too late. We are doomed.
2. Align with Nature. Thrive or Die!
Unless we have been told we have 6 months to live, and the only way to survive is to recycle, the changes we need to make as a globe are not going to happen…. What I believe we need to do is “row WITH the current”.
That is, align with the primal brain… we need to create “fast” foods that are whole food and healthy. We need to have all factories align with the cycles of nature -> whatever they produce, they are responsible for ensuring the waste is beneficial for the whole system. Composting must be a no brainer and the easiest thing possible. Plastic products must be replaced with ones that regenerate the whole, or we find a way that plastic contributes to the survival of the planet.
As humans, we need to think of ourselves as a tree. If you look at any tree, it has waste when it drops flowers, branches, leaves or fruit… but all of that feeds the microbes, the soil and the other plants around it, including itself. It’s a system that regenerates and grows its community more abundantly.
So we need to look at our existence and look at what we need (food, water, air, shelter, clothes, etc) and make sure that those are all beneficial to our overall existence…. and our waste (excrement, food waste, consumer waste) also benefits the system in some ways…. aligning with the “laziness” of the primal brain.
All of the technology for this exists… it’s our human behaviour that we need to align with the regenerative principles of Nature.
We have ten years to shift the ways we know now, to ones that actually benefit nature. For example, packaging thrown on the ground feeds the area around it — like it would if you just threw a banana leaf on the floor.
A well designed permaculture system will feel effortless and grow in abundance. We, as humans need to start thinking how can we align WITH nature, and our human nature?… You need to ask yourself “How can what I do everyday, actually ripple out and benefit the environment and community?”
The greatest news is, there are already businesses starting to do this, organisations that are growing regeneratively. For the future profits and success of any company, they need to align with the regeneration of the planet…. this is how we will all succeed.
I believe that if capitalism aligns with nature… we will Thrive!
So how do we individually start to change our habits and create a healthy planet that aligns with both the primal and prefrontal brain?
There is one simple trick that can help you..
Ask yourself “Does this behaviour help the planet Thrive or Die?”
Is what I am doing right now helping me to thrive or will it move me or the planet towards death quicker?
Think about:
What you put in your mouth…
What you buy in the store…
What you throw away…
What you power your car or house on…
Do I choose to Thrive or Die?
This actually overrides the primal brain… as its three laws are there to help you survive, not to die… and so if you give it two choices to live or die, it will choose live! And in this case we need to do more than just “live”, we need to “thrive”!
Keep in mind, there will be times your primal brain still chooses “die” … because it doesn’t really believe that eating that burger over an apple will immediately kill you….. Just know on occasion this will happen to you, we are human! However, if your choices are 80% “thrive”! You are on your way to helping shift this planet!
You are becoming a contributor to a thriving planet… to your own thriving health….to your children’s future being a safe and healthy one!
As a business owner or CEO, ask yourself, “How can I shift my business to be contributing to the planet thriving?”, “How can the product I create be wasted in a way that benefits both the company and community around it?”
We need to be thinking full circle.
When “die” is chosen over “thrive” by the primal brain… have a think, is there a way I can get what my primal brain wants… and ALSO thrive? Look for alternatives.
Two examples I have implemented… For me, chocolate used to be my downfall, but I found a way to get raw organic cacao, where I don’t eat as much because it’s so rich… but it gives me the fix my primal brain wants, the products come from local regenerative farms and it actually turns a “die” into a “thrive”.
I also got myself a worm bin, because my food waste was going to tips and contributing to the greenhouse gases causing climate change. That one shift where I throw my food waste in the worm bin, now has become a “thrive” not a “die”.
After reading this, what is one thing you can do to turn a “die” into a “thrive”?
I have created a “Checklist” of things you can set up, so your normal human behaviour can be the same, but you are starting to contribute to a thriving planet, and as a bonus, your own health may improve too!
Together we can do this! Together we can once again be Thriving with Nature.
