I believe in a future where humanity co-exists with the environment. This would include the simultaneous respect of cultural as well as environmental values as a collective society to achieve a sort of equilibrium between humanity and nature (although humanity and nature should be seen as two parts of a collective whole rather than the "us vs. them" narrative we have today). The incentive to move towards co-existence would have to include some sort of economic element, finding ways to profit off of conservation, and an environment-first approach. Off the top of my head, this might be some sort of environment credit system or something of that nature. Finally, the law and systems of power would have to recognize the importance of cultural/traditional/local knowledge when it comes to designing environmental policy and protections and such. #UnleashValues
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Hey Tyson!
I love your incentive suggestion! Incentives can be an effective means of producing long-term behavioural changes. Criticizing someone for unsustainable behaviours can only go so far. If we want to effectuate widespread climate action, we will need to make it easier for people to make the "right choice". If we want to make it easier, we will need to produce cheaper, faster, longer-lasting, yet more sustainable, alternatives.
Incentives also allow for an incredible amount of creativity! Would highly recommend the article below about an Indonesian app being used to map lands and protect forests. Users visit a location, provide information about land type and land use, and collect points by answering questions. You can compete with other users, as your status in the game updates based on how many points you've collected.
This raises a good point, co-existence is a required trait to properly inject the dimension of recognition for a just world.
Never thought about incentivizing coexistence before, and I agree. I think its tragically true that some people can only be motivated by what directly benefits them, but for climate action to work everyone needs to understand their responsibility and involvement. Incentivizing climate action may lead to a lot of people on the fence to take on more responsibility, so I think you have some great points.
Interesting ideas about incentivizing co-existence. I also agree that incorporating traditional ecological knowledge can give decision makers another important lens/viewpoint to make the most informed decisions.
I love this thought experiment! Reconsidering all of our ideas about the "right" way to live alongside nature and non-human others really centers just perspectives...this "othering" that you are talking about is applied to marginalized people and places as well as other species, leaving a lot of room for improvement. The environmental credit system is also an interesting idea, and sorta exists...assigning "value" (under capitalism) to forests or ecosystems on the blockchain is one example.