A new sustainable future
by Andrew Tidswell, Blackwood Sustainable Communities Group
This article appears on page 4 of The Blackwood Times, Issue 307, October 2020
The new normal
Most of us are feeling various effects of the COVID-19 restrictions. Some people have lost jobs that may never return, some businesses have closed never to re-open, and we all have had our social contacts with family and friends severely curtailed. Some people talk of ‘when we return to normal’ where things will be the same as last year, however in reality our future will never be exactly the same again and we need to consider a ‘new normal’ where things can be better than they have been.
For some people the ‘old normal’ may not have been very nice; it may have been lonely or financially insecure, it may have been frenzied or stressful. We now have an opportunity to create a ‘new normal’. Consider a future where we treat each other with more respect, where we look after our own health and well-being with more care, where we value the natural environment for what it is rather than what it provides, where we treasure materials more and where we waste less. A future where we deliberately prioritise the things that are really important to us.
Sustainable Communities SA
Sustainable Communities South Australia is a community organisation whose purpose is to inspire, inform and connect people in their local communities to create a more sustainable future. This takes on a whole new meaning when we factor in the impacts that the pandemic is having on our lives.
The Blackwood Sustainable Communities group aims to build local resilience to the environmental, social and economic challenges that we are facing today. We share ideas and information to help each other develop a positive outlook, to practice good environmental actions, and to strengthen our community connections. Check the Sustainable Communities SA website for more information about what the organisation is and what it does: www.sustainablecommunitiessa.org.au.
Creating our sustainable future
The future is something that we create, not a place we are going to. A better future will be explored in more detail in future articles such as:
- Looking after our physical and emotional health and well-being
- The importance of trees in our environment and human connections with nature
- Preparing our homes to better cope with increasing hot weather in summer
- Reducing the amount of waste we produce and better understanding recycling
- Shopping locally and discovering interesting places close to home
- Preparing home gardens to provide food for the kitchen.
It can be easier to live a more sustainable and rewarding life when we share with and learn from others.