Do you remember that local spot where you used to hang out when you were a kid? The local forest where you built dens in the woods, where the birds were always singing and you could try to catch little fish with your homemade net? Do you remember the last time you went there – that there weren’t so many birds? That you only pulled up some weed when you used the net? Or even more shocking: that the forest wasn’t there anymore? Now talk to someone a bit older than you and ask them what this local spot was like when they were young. They might tell you that they caught enough fish for dinner in the stream, or that you could hardly hear yourself think due to the chatter of the birds. What you thought was the best thing may actually be a seriously degraded environment. There’s a name for this phenomenon – it’s called the “shifting baseline theory”. It was introduced by an oceanographer named Pauly. It goes under the premise that we measure a change to a reference point, but that original point may be significantly altered from an earlier state in the system. This photo was taken in August 2016 on the Ecrins in Chamonix – imagine the state of these glaciers 50 years ago, would they have still spilled down to the Montenvers Glacier? Last year I attended a lecture about the monitoring and modelling of Antarctic Ice Caps, trying to estimate the potential sea level rise as a result of glacial retreat. I remember being shocked to find that CO2 levels were now at 410.1PPM; I looked again on April 9th 2019 and it is at 412.53PP; and now two months later on June 8th 2019 it has risen again to 414.2PPM. During my time at University, which still only feels like a couple of years back, we were using 385PPM and that seemed like a shocking amount. In the past decade CO2 levels have increased by 6%, a huge shift from my baseline, but I hate to imagine what will the baseline be for the next generation! We can think about baselines in terms of the science behind the global climate crisis, but what might be more useful is to examine baselines in our daily lives. For example in our diet choices. It is now normal to have oranges and satsuma in our lunchboxes or as snacks, they’re so convenient. Yet when our parents were young a satsuma was a special treat so much so that they would receive them in the bottom of their stockings at Christmas. Bell peppers (or capsicums) are now found in many evening meals, from pasta sauces to stir-frys. However even thirty years ago these were fairly exotic in many countries since they originate in Mexico, now they are the second biggest producer after China. All of these ‘normal’ diet choices have an effect upon our society: they may be economically beneficial for world trade, but ecologically costly as a result of transport and storing in special conditions to extend their shelf life. Roadside fruit and veggie stalls or local markets are great to keep your food local, and often pretty cheap if it’s in season. So perhaps its time to shift our baseline back to when we had to eat locally and seasonally. We no longer need advertisements for cellophane, it's now commonplace in the kitchen but this is a change that has happened in the last 60 years. Packaging is another place where we have had a huge shift in our baselines. Shelf-life of meat and some vegetables has been extended by using polythene: for example the cucumber is very susceptible to damage in transport and without plastic packaging there would be a greater cost in emissions due to increased food waste. However, plastic is only 60 years old and in this time we have produced 8.3billion metric tons. Our great grandparents remember visiting the local grocery stores where things were wrapped in greaseproof paper. Plastic can be appropriate in some uses and an increasing number of companies are recognizing the importance of sourcing environmentally sensitive packaging: Foodtuffs.nz (owner of PakNSave, New World and FourSquare) has recently committed to using 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025 or earlier. It’s a great step forward, and hopefully others are following suit. So, how does all this relate to us on a personal level? Well, it’s something to remember when we make choices everyday: ask why am I doing it this way? Ask was it always like this? Ask what are the alternatives? We can create a better baseline for our future generations by acting responsibly. We as a team have made it a baseline to offset our carbon emissions for travel, we created a baseline to donate 1% of our earnings to the planet, and we shifted our baseline to use bikes to commute wherever and whenever possible. Beyond this, we all can show the next generation that their baseline is not the fixed start line; it is a mid-point on a timeline of change that can be influenced for the future.
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AuthorMarian Krogh Archives
August 2019
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