But first, explanations on what these acronyms mean, because not everyone lives in my world of excessive acronyms.
UX = user experience
DX – digital experience
CX – customer experience
EX – employee experience
And now, I want to propose a new one, MX – Mother Earth Experience.
Yes, the experience we have with a brand, based on their commitment to the Great Mother. We are at a critical point for the world. All evidence is starting to point towards the fact we may already be too late. Then again, recently, it appears we have 10 years to act.
No matter which way we look at it, there is definitely no time to lose.
And we all have a job to do if we want to change this trajectory.
We, the people, have power. We, the people, have a voice. We, the people, can create great change. We just need to believe in our ability to do it and then we need to vote with our wallets and share the message within our communities.
If you didn’t read the IPCC Report, which has unfortunately been politicised, then PLEASE read it and make up your own mind. The stark language used in this report is not normal for this body. Just the way these scientists have spoken should be a massive wake-up call.
Besides, when politics enters this debate, we are at risk of doing nothing, because let’s face it, few governments can take on this fight and get re-elected. That is the belief of course. There is plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Some further reading I’ve found valuable
UN Says Climate Genocide Is Coming. It’s Actually Worse Than That.
‘It’ll change back’: Trump says climate change not a hoax, but denies lasting impact
Humanity is ‘cutting down the tree of life’, warn scientists
My plan fighting climate change – check out this post from Bill Gates. Great stuff.
What’s really warming the world? Some pretty clear data in this Bloomberg piece!!
There is plenty of great content and research circulating. Please read it. Don’t avoid it. There is hope, but we can’t bury our heads in the sand anymore. We need everyone in for this fight.
Don’t feel hopeless – despair stalls the bravest heart
Hopelessness is such a strong feeling driving through the global community these days. The most bizarre thing is, with the advent of social media, we have never been stronger or more powerful.
We can change the direction the world is going with our voice, our vote and what we put in our super market trolleys. We can make the politicians of the world – which I believe are corrupted to the core by lobbyists/big business – stand up and be put on notice.
I believe a large part of the angst of world leaders today (both business and government) is down to this – they don’t want us to wake up to the fact that we have all the power now. We really do and it terrifies them.
But we have to claim it. It’s our duty to claim it. We have to do it for ourselves, our children and future generations.
So ask yourself and dig deeper?
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- Packaging… one of my passions. How many times do you buy a product and the container isn’t full? Oh it contains the amount that is promised on the label, but there is all this extra space too. So why not make smaller containers! I mean check out this supplement I got recently – important when living in Asia. I got two bottles at the airport, and when I opened one, it was so empty, I poured the other bottle I got into it, and could have put the contents of a third bottle in too – easily! We are finally seeing new supermarket brands tackling this, but we have such a long way to go. Ideas for refillable stations at supermarkets have surely been explored? Bring your own container. But equally, what about packaging for the things we buy. I love my Bose headphones, but the packaging is 98% of what I’m buying. Why?
- Is your favorite clothing, shoes or accessory brands doing good for the Great Mother? Or are they killing animals indiscriminately to make your fashion? Are they washing poisons and dyes into oceans and rivers far away from your home, impacting the lives of poor communities? Are they managing their supply chain (remember the Bangladesh building collapse?) to ensure the products they sell are – start to finish – contributing to a greater world? Are they employing children in their factories? Or are they offering the children of their workers greater living conditions and education, so they can break the cycle of poverty? Is their total contribution an excellent MX experience? And if it’s not, if they’re not being transparent about it, why do we continue to support these brands? Let’s hold them accountable. Write to them. Post concerns on social media. Start your own movement
- What about your soap, your laundry detergent, peanut butter, favorite snacks, and more – do they contain palm oil? And if so, is the palm oil being sourced sustainably? And I mean really sustainably? Again, are they switched onto their entire supply chain? We had great news recently showing Indonesia has banned palm oil licenses for three years, and while corruption will see it continue, this is excellent news and a start. Go Indonesia. But big brands are buying palm oil from countries that continue to cut down forests to plant palm trees on a massive scale – as the Greenpeace report stated. Not only are we cutting down the second global lung (the Amazon is the first), Orangutans are close to extinction, the Sumatran tiger is closer than ever and many many other species are gone or on the brink of extinction. The local people in these communities are basically living as slaves, in horrendously polluted environments, all for palm oil, which is cheap and easy to use, and it’s in EVERYTHING! It can’t go on. Some of the biggest players stand accused: Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive. So, let’s do something. If they are not committed to providing excellent MX, then we must be committed to not buying their products. We can put pressure on them too. Make them do the right thing
- What about the seafood you buy? Is it caught sustainably? Or perhaps it’s farmed? And if it’s farmed, did it come about from flooding poor, rural workers farmland, land that will take decades, or even centuries to become fertile for growing crops again? Seafood is a massive topic in this conversation, because the growth of the global middle class is staggering – nearly two billion in Asia alone – and I think back to my childhood, where lobster was unheard of. Very few people had the privilege to enjoy that tasty treat. Today, it appears everyone has access to lobster. How? And shark fin soup… will we really allow the super predators of the oceans to go extinct, on our watch? We think we can survive that? Mind boggling
- What about your bank? Are they investing in sustainable activities, or are they investing in big corporates destroying the environment? Close your account and make a stand – but don’t forget to tell your social community and copy the bank in, so they know. Let’s create a tidal wave so they are forced to act!
- Fast food – if that’s your thing, are they using unnecessary packaging, or even Styrofoam? I hate that stuff, and in Thailand, where I live, it’s everywhere. Tell them to stop using it
- Plastic water bottles – DON’T BUY THEM!!! I live in a place where I can’t drink out of the tap and I still don’t buy water – unless I’m really desperate, which is usually when I’m out with my kids. And even when we’re desperate, I feel depressed that I bought bottled water! Please, get a high-quality water bottle, and take it everywhere with you
I really could go on and on. I often feel despair at what we are doing and cannot understand my fellow humans who don’t have a strong, emotional reaction to the excessive waste we are all responsible for.
When the Haze hit Singapore, year after year – which was hideous – I kept saying to people: what are you doing about it? People would look at me blankly and say: what can I do?
We can research, find out which products contain unsustainable palm oil and not support these brands anymore. We can put those brands on notice that we’re not going to take it anymore. We are powerful!
It’s not easy being Green
I am definitely an ecowarrior, but I am not perfect. It’s actually hard to be perfect, and even harder when you’re living in a country where it’s not on the agenda of the population YET. Sadly, with 62 per cent of the global population in Asia, we need to get it on the agenda in this region and fast. This is a critical challenge for fending off environmental genocide.
My beach helpers in Phuket
But I feel closer to the issue now. I spent the off-season cleaning beaches with my kids in Phuket, and we hauled so much trash away every day! It had floated in from far and wide. It was a truly horrifying experience.
Please, let’s come together, and demand that the companies we buy from, invest in, work for, and more, do their part towards ensuring Mother Earth is cared for.
I always come back to a comment I read once. When it comes to rubbish, there is no away. We have one earth that we share together, and we must take care of it.
Because there is only one truth that matters at the end of the day. Mother Earth does not need us. The animals, the plants, the rivers, the sea. None of them need us. We need them, and it’s about time we woke up to that fact and stopped abusing the Great Mother.
Let’s put #MX on the agenda everywhere
So check in often with your favorite brands. Get their commitment to MX and hold them accountable for delivering on it. We can all do our own part, but we can also demand the companies we buy from do their part too.
When it comes to governments, we should all be voting out any government that is not committed to MX. If they don’t care about our kids and grandkids, are committing to fossil fuels and any energy technology that is destroying the world, and are only focused on short term wins and power, they do not deserve our support. Vote them out!!
Please read and learn. Understand where we are. We literally have 10 years to act!
And if you’re in Singapore and want to learn about what you can do, as well as meet people running beautiful sustainable businesses that are all about #MX, then get along to The Consciousness Festival by Green is the New Black, happening in Singapore 3rd and 4th November – it’s free to attend.
Equally, there are fantastic talks happening as well. I’m thrilled to be speaking on one of the panels – Intrapreneurship – finding purpose in big ponds. If you want to attend the talks, there’s a 10% discount with the code IMCONSCIOUS. You can register here.
If you’re not in Singapore, support the events in your country, and support amazing people, like Stephanie Dickson of Green is the New Black, who are taking the fight on for all of us.
I could list so many examples of things that I get frustrated with and really do see me barrelling towards despair on a regular basis, but tell me, what drives you insane? Let’s start the conversation and get #MX on the agenda everywhere.
Cheers
Andrea
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