Our current paradigm, our current way of living is deeply flawed and unsustainable. The threats of peak oil, climate change, water & food shortages, deforestation, mass extinction etc are all clear examples of a need for change. Not to mention that we still live in a world where war and poverty are common. It is logically inescapable that you cannot have infinite growth on a planet with finite resources.
Why are these things so obvious to some people and denied so vehemently by others? I’m not a psychologist but my guess is that, to people who tend to avoid these topics, discussing them calls into question everything they’ve know, everything they have grown up believing and by extension their identity - who they are. It’s just too difficult or maybe even scary, I don’t know.
In my opinion, this is where I see the environmental movement as having failed - in its communication, or maybe even their approach generally. To me the environmental movement seems very alienating in nature as it comes across as saying - ‘your current lifestyle is bad, you are hurting the planet, you need to pay for it by reducing your consumption, which in the minds of many people translates into - you must reduce your standard of living’. For many of those people, it is a price too great and they reject it.
Now, we could sit here all day playing the blame game and recycling arguments, getting really cranky with each other and going nowhere fast. Or, we could do something different. Something better. This is what Rentoid, and others working in the collaborative consumption space are all about - providing an alternative win/win solution:
By sharing what we already have, we can reduce our consumption without reducing our standard of living. In fact it can even enhance living standards by reducing the burdens of ownership (cost, maintenance, worry etc) and also by creating new value from underutilised resources.
What makes this solution so special is that because it benefits everyone who participates and the environment, not either/or, it is finally possible to get everybody working on the same team.
This is why I love rentoid.
Geordie, the rentoid team.