Greenpeace: How to Change the World
OMTIMES: Looking back through your own experience, what do you see as the most vital factor for promoting effective change on our world?
Jerry Rothwell: In his books Hunter argued that we are instruments of change rather than its agents – change when it happens is driven by wider social, cultural and environmental factors and as his voiced writings say in the film ’90% of history is being in the right place at the right time. Greenpeace in its early years drew on a combination of bearing witness (to environmental degradation), lobbying (to effect change at a global level through legislation and public pressure) and local action (people making changes where they have more power). I think that combination is still pretty effective.
OMTIMES: In your opinion, can we reverse the destruction our civilized world has caused in our natural world? If so, what are the steps required to do this?
Jerry Rothwell: Humankind has always been attracted to apocalyptic thinking – and I think climate change can provoke that response too. It’s profoundly debilitating. Perhaps, as James Lovelock argues, in the end it is the earth that will teach us to live in balance with it (through catastrophe). – But, yes, we absolutely have the power to reverse things to make the necessary changes ourselves. I think we need a wider understanding of the costs of our way of life, of what sustainability means. We have created a system of economic relations with each other that takes a very short term view and in which the true costs of our activities (for example their impact on the environment) re made largely invisible to the consumer. That’s beginning to change, and there’s lots of example of a shifts to sustainable systems on a large scale.
Interview with Jerry Rothwell by Liane Buck Editor of OMtimes
1.© Greenpeace Robert Keziere
2.© Greenpeace Rex Weyler
3.© How To Change The World Ltd
4.© Greenpeace International
5.© Rex Weyler/Greenpeace
6.© Greenpeace Rex Weyler
