January 20, 2025
By Susan Treiman—
The best way to address climate change is to affiliate with, rather than isolate, from other people.
So said Douglas Rushkoff, a prolific writer, thinker, and “presentist” (rather than futurist), ranked among the 10 most influential intellectuals in the world by MIT. The Hastings-on-Hudson resident shared his views, and his advice, in Irvington at the latest Climate Talk last week.
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Rushkoff’s prescription for social change would put power squarely into the hands of ordinary citizens, through cooperation and small actions. Entitled “Remaking the Landscape without Remaking People: Towards a New Theory of Change” his comments explored ways to harness what he’s learned about creating change in the 21st century to impact climate change, sustainability, and the environment.
“We can reduce our consumption by doing more together and making the slow transition from a culture of extraction and competition to one of caring,” said Rushkoff, “and the more we do for and with each other, the less dependent we become on Walmart, Twitter and others like them. “
Last Wednesday’s gathering at the Irvington library, the latest monthly talk convened by the local Green Policy Task force, came days after climate scientists announced that 2024 was the warmest year in history. The global temperature rose by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) during the calendar year, continuing a decade of steady increases. The Los Angeles bushfires were among the latest calamities believed caused by climate change. Twenty-seven other natural disasters during 2024 in the US alone were linked to a warming planet.
Despite that, Rushkoff believes people can reclaim their “agency” – their impact on wider events – if they follow four steps needed to establish change.
“The first step is what one of my students called ‘denaturalizing power,’ which actually means questioning things we accept as givens, rather than as things society has created,” said Rushkoff.
“Everything from money, to jobs, to the way we consume were invented by society rather than being things that occur in nature,” he said.
Logically, he continued, anything dreamt up by man can be altered, challenged, or replaced. That includes the desire to be completely self-sufficient by acquiring more things that can, instead, be shared among a small group to conserve resources.
Reclaiming personal agency, the second step on the journey to change, calls for small adjustments in behavior that make cooperation more possible. New ways of doing things become far more effective when a critical mass of people adopt those behaviors. That represents the third step on the change trajectory.
“When you trigger agency, you realize you need the participation of other people, and that requires ‘resocializing,’” Rushkoff continued.
Reaching out to others, establishing connections, and finding novel ways to work together can be challenging for people accustomed to disappearing into social media, but such behaviors can yield enormous benefits.
“Asking for a favor from a neighbor you may not know well gives them the opportunity to reciprocate, which leads to more interactions,” said Rushkoff. Potentially, those small cooperative events forge new relationships, build stronger community connections, and help to “knit the fabric of culture,” Rushkoff contended.
“When you ask to borrow a drill from a neighbor instead of buying one, you are engaging in resocializing,” said Rushkoff.
In a post-COVID world marked by the so-called “loneliness epidemic,” where people tend to disappear into their social media and personal devices, seeking the help from a stranger can be daunting. But while it may be easier and quicker to buy a new drill rather than approaching someone about borrowing one, it can help break the habits that are increasingly separating people from each other.
“We’ve become as bad as any addicts hitting bottom, and we now need to do what any addict does to break the addiction,” he warned.
The potential payoff, he added, can be enormous when the first three steps for change lead to the fourth and most powerful one; the experience of “awe.”
“These are the elevated moments when you find something greater than yourself; something more,” he said. They can occur “when you’re connected to a larger community or a larger world; when your baby sleeps on your chest; when you discover a hidden lake while hiking the woods,” he says. Or it can result from a new friendship with a neighbor.
“The experience of awe actually improves your immune system and makes you feel more generous for days,” said Rushkoff.
Despite dire predictions about the planet’s future, he is confident that people can coalesce, connect, and lead change.
“If one percent of the population is proactive in sharing, conserving, or reducing waste, millions of people can be affected – and it can make an important difference,” said Rushkoff.
To learn about future climate talks, visit https://www.irvingtongreen.org/events.
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