Climate Lockdowns

Peter du ToitI'm the founder of FutureWork IQ where I spend my time assisting businesses to improve their climate literacy so as to understand the projected impacts from the expanding climate crisis and how to adapt their workplaces in the face of these impacts.

n Sept of 2020, Prof Mariana Mazzucato penned this piece entitled Avoiding a Climate Lockdown.

What is that you ask? Well she explains:

“Under a ‘climate lockdown,’ governments would limit private-vehicle use, ban consumption of red meat, and impose extreme energy-saving measures, while fossil-fuel companies would have to stop drilling.”

She then sets about outlining what is needed in order to avoid this situation.

My humble opinion is that “climate lockdowns” in our near future will be unavoidable. Judging from how many people simply ignored the basic science during the pandemic, it would seem very likely the same will transpire in this crisis, which has even more serious consequences than COVID.

As a result governments will be forced to act as they were during the pandemic, by implementing “climate lockdowns” to radically reduce emissions.

Many businesses were caught completely unprepared when the pandemic hit and experienced much pain in trying to cope with the disruption.

My suggestion is don’t get caught again. How do you do this?

Put on an imaginary pair of “carbon glasses” and look at your business (or career) carefully and ask: “Where are the fossil fuel touch points and what can we (or I) do to eliminate them?”

So, do you really need those offices? Do you really need to communite to a physical building? Do you really need to take that flight?

The more you decouple from fossil fuel energy the less disrupted you will be when the inevitable “climate lockdowns” arrive.