Change is inevitable. In fact, as humans, we crave it. We crave a change in seasons, a change in circumstances and strive for “better”. The opposite is stagnation, boredom or prison.
Change is also one of the most feared parts of life. Not all change is for the “best” – that’s for sure, but such is the paranoia around change that often a utopian view of the present is adopted and an exaggerated view of the perceived downsides of a changed future imagined. Is what we have now better? Could it not be improved?
Change creates opportunities.
In professional leadership roles, education in Change Management is prioritised. The faster someone can work through the stages of accepting change – Denial, Fear, Acceptance and Commitment; the faster opportunities can be realised. Old, established, businesses often have the “Yellowstone” mentality – wanting to slow the rate of change to a crawl so they can manage outcomes for their benefit- ideally keeping things the same or close to it. Newcomers prefer a bit of chaos in the process to try and get a foothold to a better future.
Both approaches are fine, but there are many examples of Tech companies, who are the masters of change, and have exponentially faster growth as a result.
The Gympie Region is seeing it’s share of change; but looking nationally (and internationally), right now, we aren’t even a ping on the radar.*
For many regions of Australia, right now, it’s all about renewable energy with hundreds of projects nationally**. Regardless of who you prefer to lead us, there’s a lot of change coming as land is allocated renewables projects or nuclear. There is a third industrial revolution underway. Green politics and a new generation of concerned voters is ensuring the status quo is shifting away from the energy system that’s fueled our growth for the last century.
Land use change for energy creation is not a new phenonium; I come from “Gas Land”. Many of the properties I worked on as a kid are now coal or gas reserves and will continue to be for a few more decades. Unlike those extractive industries however that start with an abundance and ultimately finish with exhaustion, renewables are, well, – renewable. Just be glad we don’t have fossil fuels in abundance in our region as there are 116 new projects planned in the next decade in someone else’s backyard- more than for renewables.***
While debate rages around biodiversity Vs emissions, around visual amenity Vs intergenerational benefit and around urbinisation Vs decentralisation; shouldn’t natural capital management of the ecology we are trying to protect right now be front and center?
Are we currently managing biodiversity loss on all our land by eliminating burning, stopping over clearing, ploughing and chemical use- or are those practices still OK? Is destroying habitat in the name of “maintenance” or “fuel reduction” OK while the same impact in the name of renewable energy projects is not?
Because everyone could argue that they live in the best place in the world (those in Gaza right now a possible exception), the “not in my backyard” mentality is probably still the primary driver in deciding what is good change versus what is bad. This is a reasonable argument; but don’t greenwash it.
As residents of a democratic country, we have an opportunity right now to ensure that net benefits of energy projects can outweigh net costs. “Offsetting” impact is not a net benefit. We want to see a nature (and societal) positive outcome. We can demand that environmental & social outcomes from projects can more than outweigh net impacts. No matter if you are for or against, we can make change work for us by thinking regeneratively about what the region needs to leaver project impact for exponential intergenerational benefit.
*https://www.aeic.gov.au/energy-projects-and-infrastructure
**https://theconversation.com/renewable-projects-are-getting-built-faster-but-theres-even-more-need-for-speed-221874
*** https://reneweconomy.com.au/no-new-fossil-fuels-australia-has-116-new-coal-oil-and-gas-projects-in-the-pipeline/
