Five practical tips to help the earth. With Grammenos Mastrojeni

We don’t need to make any heroic sacrifices or renunciations to help the planet; only a few small changes in our lifestyle. These changes can trigger a series of positive consequences and effects, characterised by the expression ‘butterfly effect’. Grammenos Mastrojeni, Vice Secretary of the Union for the Mediterranean, diplomat and professor, is well aware of this. For over twenty years he has been working in the field of climate change and has written the book “Butterfly Effects: 5 positive choices to save the planet” (Chiarelettere, 2021). In view of Earth Day 2021, we asked him for five tips to achieve this goal on an individual scale: the starting point, along with institutional initiatives from businesses and governments, for a more sustainable future.

Mastrojeni, to avoid aggravating the situation and contribute to the fight against climate change...

What should we eat?

«If we compare our food pyramid with the impact of food production on the environment in which these exist, we find that the more ‘harmful’ a food is, the more its production hurts the planet. This is not an industry coincidence, but a rule that can be applied to everyone: being sustainable releases well-being and sets in motion extraordinary sequences of consequences. For instance, if I avoid consuming excessive amounts of meat, I also avoid the pollution created through meat production and the consumption, which often involves land taken from virgin ecosystems or from more fragile populations. In practice, an individual gesture (apart from rewarding me with an immediate improvement in well-being) is also a very powerful rebalancer of the current system and justice. And where there is justice, there is peace. It does not mean giving something up, but giving up the excess that causes the damage; the key to the future of food is not ‘less’, but ‘better’, based on criteria that favours quality over quantity».

What should we wear?

«The same applies to this question. The millions of clothes produced each year, which last the duration of the season they are in fashion for, are both our own form of slavery and the first link in a series of devastating consequences. The war in Syria, for example, might not have taken place without our hunger for fashion. The root lies in changes in Syria’s agricultural system, which has evolved from family farms to more industrial farms for producing cotton. However, cotton requires a lot of water: climate change has led to a severe drought, which has prompted 1.8 million people to move from the countryside to the cities. This is a more extreme example, but it summarises the effect our little choices have and their power, which can be positive if used well. It’s when we choose freedom, quality, ‘to be rather than to have’, that we become sustainable».

How should we travel?

«Transport is an area where we can only do what our areas allow. However, we have several possible lines of action, always in pursuit of our own well-being and therefore sustainability. The first is to do what we can within our own contexts: in Italy, almost 90% of car journeys travel less than two kilometres, the equivalent to five minutes by bicycle or around twenty minutes on foot; it’s not always about time. The second line of action involves the structural context, which may not always allow for sustainable mobility choices. However, we can change this in two ways: by voting for those who strive for this change or, once again, by choosing quality. And not only in transportation, but in every sense. If I choose quality, I automatically move towards smaller-scale production, local distribution and proximity. This reactivates smaller-scale, local trade and considerably reduces the need for movement. So choosing quality in every area of our purchases becomes a reformulator of urban organisation, which contributes to solving the transportation problem by making it less necessary».

What should be discarded?

«If I am merely a consumer who has to decide which bin to leave something in, my choice counts for little. Given that we do not decide on packaging and its real final destination, the solution is a collective and structural one, which needs to address the problem of overproduction. Our economy produces so much to replace services that nature provides for us completely spontaneously. If the summer is hot and I want respite, I can find it within a forest or in the forest’s artificial substitute, like air conditioning in a mall. The former does not produce waste. The latter does, and it also actually fails to provide the quality of service that nature does. The real answer lies not so much in recycling and new waste treatment technologies (which are nonetheless important), but in the desire to consume less by choosing what nature already offers to us».

How should we use our money?

«Our wallets enable us to vote for a healed world, a different world, but we have to realise that these choices are not made based on this assumption. Statistically, less than 1% of the population considers the common good in their choices. So when we buy a product. we basically want value for money. The good news is that the search for quality (over quantity) is becoming more frequent and more simple. So if we are free enough to make that choice, our purchases can direct markets towards a new equilibrium. So basically, our wallets make us the most influential players of all».