Don't move... for 30 years!

Could Julian Allwood succeed where Osho didn't?

I think that somewhere over the years a part of my brain has become calibrated to always be on the lookout for a potentially game-changing world event.

Not necessarily something that might make the world a better, or more peaceful, place. Rather something that would catalyse a significant number of citizens to want to look inside, face their demons, and come out transformed beings. And somehow thus kick-start a whole wave of transformation that would roll over the globe.

My fave controversial Indian guru, Osho, figured that the necessary number of people to get this going would be 10,000.

Working for many years in the heavier and more confrontational end of therapy, I’m totally used to clients getting very excited about Bioenergetics or Reichian work, building up a head of energy and intention, affirming that they will do whatever it takes, and then collapsing by the wayside not long afterward.

To me, this is routine. It’s day-to-day. It’s rare these days that I feel particularly upset by it happening. It’s rare that I even want to try and stir them with words, or shame or cajole them. I respect their choice and affirm to them that I don’t judge them. I assure them that I’m here to support them to pick the thread again in the future, should they wish to. Basically, I’m okay with it.

I know that 99% of individuals will never significantly look inside and that this is actually not their fault but merely how things are.

And yet, there is still a part of my brain that is forever on the lookout for something that could break the choke-hold that external experience has us in.

Enter Professor Julian Allwood and his “Absolute Zero” plan to combat emissions, commissioned by the UK government and published in 2019.

Allwood is nothing if not brutally honest.

You think new tech is going to get the UK to net zero by 2050? Allwood is going to laugh at you like you just told him that there are fairies living in the bottom of your garden.

You think carbon capture or hydrogen technology are going to be useful? You’re making him laugh even harder.

You think the UK can get to net zero in the next 28 years without a massive shift in living standards? Allwood has two words for you. Get Real.

The bottom line is that there are 4 heavy carbon-emitting aspects to life in the UK that are going to need to go into a 28 year hiatus if we are to have any chance to meet the target we’ve agreed upon.

• Flying - No flying til 2050. England, Scotland and Northern Ireland can keep one airport open each, just for extreme emergency use.

• Shipping - None allowed, nothing in nor out by boat.

• Beef or Lamb production - Needs to come to a dead stop.

• Cement - Stop manufacturing cement.

We have no realistic possibility to replace these 4 aspects of our lives in time to meet the target we’ve agreed to. They thus need to simply go until that date, by which time there may be replacements available.

Now, this is fairly radical shit. I’m actually impressed. And Prof Julian seems like a pretty cool guy. And if a UK government could get the British public to swallow such a strong medicine, I think this country would absolutely benefit from it in the long run.

Forgetting for a moment the kudos of leading the world in demonstrating a real commitment to sustainability, as opposed to a lot of virtue-signalling, us British would also have to learn how to better live their lives, free from many of the things we currently take for granted. We could learn to relate better, for a start. We could learn to introspect upon and work towards who we really want to be as individuals. We could make use of this long, 28-year hiatus to develop ourselves and to work much more on and with the land.

Personally, I see a lot of upsides. I’d be so impressed if the UK went for it, I’d come back here to live.

I actually don’t know what the real level of existential threat presented by climate change is. The issue seems to have become so politicised. And the degree of weight you place on it seems to be mostly dependent on where in the world you live and thus what media you habitually consume. But, even if the threat level is way lower than, say, the average European firmly believes, I see no reason why we shouldn’t pursue Allwood’s approach anyway. It could save our civilisation on so many levels.