Ponderings on the voyage...

My intention was to first just say a few words about the past week and tell you about Milford Sound. However, my writing got a bit out of hand, so I will leave this as it is and later in the week (aiming for Wednesday) publish the story of one of the most beautiful fiords on this planet.

On Wednesday and Thursday night I had the great pleasure of meeting up with my English cousin Paul and his mate Jim, who are on a 'round the world trip. Having travelled around NZ the past two weeks, they were passing through Christchurch before heading for Aussie. Last time we met was at Grandma's garden party in Vasa last summer, and now we were both on the other side of the planet! Funny, huh? At least we thought so.

On Friday morning I had to wake up earlier than any other morning so far in Christchurch. The reason? I wanted to listen to a talk given by Bill McKibben who was in town to promote www.350.org. Bill was the first to write a book (The End of Nature) about climate change to a general audience, now 20 years ago. He is the co-founder of 350.org, an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis. I won't go into further detail about 350.org because most of you who read this will have got an email about it from me. Suffice it to say, that the session was extremely fruitful and I hope you check the website out and get involved!

Since then a couple of things have been on my mind, but it all boils down to this: fossil fuels are hidden everywhere in our daily lives. Our modern society is built on foundations of fossil fuels. It's not just the petrol you fill your car with, or the coal many Kiwis burn in their fireplaces in winter. One day at work a man told me the fleece I was wearing was made of fossil fuels, and he was right. 100% polyester, which is ultimately derived from oil. But it goes further than that, further than all the plastic products in the world. Did you know, for instance, that petrochemicals are used to manufacture modern medicines like analgesics, antibiotics, antihistamines, ointments and many more?

What happens when we reach peak oil? What happens when we run out?

Although more serious, the future state of modern healthcare wasn't my foremost thought. Rather, it was the realisation that my possible grandchildren or grandgrandchildren most likely won't be able to embark on a journey like the one I'm currently on. At least, in a way, I hope not, because if they could, it would mean my generation lost the fight to solve the current climate crisis.

We are at a crossroads in history. One path leads to business as usual; keep on relying on fossil fuels until the reserves are eventually depleted while the climate shows its ugly, irremediable face to mankind. The other path leads to voluntary, gradual freedom from the dependence on fossil fuels through a cap on greenhouse gas emissions and the price thereof cascading into the markets. This latter path leads to a future without catastrophic climate change, but can only be realised through a shift in the mindset of the human race. A sustainable future isn't one where humans live like locusts on Earth, but one where the relationship between guest and host is symbiotic.

This leads to consider another ideology which is largely to blame for the current dilemma facing humanity. The purpose of life, contrary to what advertisements would have us believe, can't be consumerism, can it? Is the meaning of my life to make ever more profit and more profit so I can buy more products (made of fossil fuels) and contribute to pollution, deforestration and depletion of natural resources (mainly in the Third World since Western civilisation has already reaped the resources of the First World)? Is the answer to life, the universe and everything 42 cars / toothbrushes / vacuum cleaners / plastic bags / bottles / sneakers / circulars / insert-your-favourite-consumable-here?

One thing, probably the most profound thing, that has dawned on me during this journey, which today has lasted for an even 250 days, is that I don't want my life to be about all that. I don't want to make my life a part of that vicious circle. Profit, profit, profit, buy, buy, buy, more, more, more.

Earlier this week I had one of the best conversations I've had so far at work. This man in his fifties invites me into his "temple", i.e. his garage :-) We sit there talking for a good 45 minutes (having a few cold ones too). When at one point his little red-haired boy shows up before bedtime, the man tells me how his father used to take him to a river to fish, but how he can't do that with his boy today because the river is polluted and if you catch a fish there it is likely to come up with five eyes in its head! These are the true joys of life bereaved from us due to the profit-buy-more mentality constantly pushed at us from all directions.

Later he asked me what made me decide to come to NZ and work for Greenpeace. I found myself telling him the answer not because it was a part of my sales pitch, but because it was the honest truth. I came to do something different with my life. I didn't plan to find this, but now that I have, am determined to find some meaning with life above money and worldly wealth.

250 days ago I never knew I'd find answers like these, nor that I would lose others. What I do know now, however, is that I don't want to find myself 50 and not be able to go out fishing with my daughter or son because I've been part of the problem, and not the solution.