The time for change is now. Actually, scrap that, we’ve already done such irreversible damage to the environment with our greenhouse gas emissions and our rush to get everywhere yesterday that the time for change was… well, yesterday.
But we’re still waiting for someone else to do it, we’re still waiting for someone else to show us how, and for someone else to remind us why.
And then someone does. The city of Sandton brings the 2015 Ecomobility World Festival right to our doorstep so that we can explore the exhilarating possibility of life in a car-free city, and still we grumble. Mostly about the chaos and the congested traffic as a result of road closure to regular traffic in sections of Sandton’s CBD for the duration of the festival.
If we stopped to look just a little further past our own noses, we’d see that the chaos and congestion we’re worried about during the festival is nothing compared to what our daily reality will be not too far in the distant future. I read the other day that if we don’t start changing things soon, people in Cape Town won’t be able to drive anywhere faster than 29km/h… we’re literally rushing towards a standstill.
Car rental
So let’s climb out our (fossil-fuelled) cars for a moment, let’s take a walk, let’s stand on the horizon… and just for a moment… let’s look beyond ourselves.
Don’t we all want a thriving future on a liveable planet? Don’t we all want to be healthy?
To spend less time stuck on a piece of tar surrounded by other equally stuck people all breathing in each other’s toxic fumes? Well, we’re not going to get anywhere near a cleaner, brighter, healthier future until we change how we move towards that future. And we’re not going to change how we move until we change the way we think.
It’s not just about you or me. It’s about all of us. A prosperous, sustainable future needs a sharing culture. Like car-sharing.
This self-service car rental programme where you can rent the nearest available car by the minute, the hour, or the day, is popping up all over the world and it’s helping to take thousands of cars off the roads.
We can team up for safety in numbers and walk in groups, or cycle (or even ebike) in groups.
Cycling
We can get our heads out of the ridiculous mindset that cycling to work isn’t cool – in the Netherlands, I’ve seen people cycling to work in their business suits, and trust me, nothing ever looked cooler.
Our business leaders can install showers and bike facilities in our office buildings, they can offer incentive schemes for green mobility and car sharing. They can embrace longer-term thinking. Instead of worrying about the economy, they should be caring about the environment.
They can invest in alternative transport, invest in those showers and bike facilities and pedestrian paths, move to mixed-use areas where staff can work, live, and play all in one community.
We can all be change makers.
I’m not saying that it won’t be a challenge. I’m not saying that it won’t take time or effort or imagination. But we’re South Africans. We’re creative, innovative, vibrant people. We know how to think out the box. We know how to make a plan. And we get the spirit of ubuntu.
So before you hop back into your privately-owned, fossil-fuelled car, ask yourself what kind of future you want… and then green the way you’re going to get there.
* Jonathan Cohen is the chief executive of Imperial Green Mobility.
** The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Media.
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