WHAT WOULD
GANDHI DO?
Where is the calm, inner voice of wisdom about two mothers arguing about who was wealth flow, from rich to poor, during the
that will guide our world leaders to a new, the real mother of a one-year-old baby? detox period as the rich kids learn to cope
safer place? Take the analogy of a Neither would give up their claim, so with dropping the same litter as poor kids,
playground – quite a big one – one shared Solomon thought about it and said that the and borrow temporarily some of their ‘litter
by a lot of school-children, some from the baby should be cut in two each having half. rights’ as they come clean. It even generates
very richest homes in the world, and many At which point the true mother gave up her a little leeway for poor kids to up their litter a
from the very poorest. The playground is claim to the child. little bit, as they grow richer.
almost knee-high in litter after 100 or so Contraction and Convergence (C&C) It is reconciliatory. It is healing. It is
years of no-one cleaning up. represents the best possible reconciliation. workable. And, as far as I can see, it is the
What is needed – in playground politics But it is very tough for both rich and poor best offer likely to make the negotiating
terms – to break the stalemate and to clear to accept. table. It is rooted in future fairness, and it is
up the mess (which is growing faster than it It is tough for the US and UK to buy into a plan for mutual survival.
is being cleared up) is for all the rich kids to because it requires the west to shrink The alternative is one in which the rich
stop dropping litter entirely and to start to emissions rapidly. The rich kid in us says we kids perpetuate the current injustice,
pick up all their historical litter. It is cannot stop dropping our litter that fast. watching the poor die as they cling on, in an
important they do this unilaterally. They And it is tougher still for the wronged increasingly-turbulent tidal wave, ending
need to stop whinnying about the large and nations to accept because it is still unfair with them too getting swept away. The poor
growing numbers of poor kids, who can only inasmuch as it does not wipe the slate kids can cling on to the fact that they are
afford to drop one small item of rubbish per clean. For historical litter, it lets the spoilt ‘right’, and have been ‘wronged’ and are by
year, when they are each dropping 100 rich kids off the hook for past crimes of far the biggest victim.
times that amount. What is needed is one or emission and says we will forgive you for Both have to let go and join the swirling
two brave, rich kids to inspire others around past littering as long as you start to clear up current of a global movement, focusing on
them by saying: ‘I will start this clear-up your own mess properly from now on. what is right and not what is wrong, and to
even if no-one else will.’ Because the: ‘I will, Which is the bigger ask? Which is the hope that we can fix this if we unify and
if you will,’ game ends in us drowning in our bigger act of generosity? It is obvious. We agree something, somehow. C&C is pure
own litter. This is one of the ways that the expect a lot of the poor nations when asking solution to sore pollution.
pupils might discover a way out of their them to accept this framework. It is the It is not fair to ask poor kids to accept
mess. One or two of them start to save the poor kids in the playground – as ever it was such a future framework because they
world by irrational acts of love and – who are being asked to be the bigger should not be in the mess that we created.
compassion that turn out to be contagious person and to be the bigger hero and to And it is not likely that the west will ever
so that the tiny few, cutting their own accept the pain of injustice a while longer. accept that it has to pick up all past litter, as
individual rubbish footprint, vanish Crucially, I do not see a better global well as almost stopping the dropping of
insignificantly unless they inspire others framework anywhere near the negotiating litter entirely. C&C starts to reverse the
around them to follow, leading from table. C&C says that every person on the process of expansion and divergence. And it
nothingness to a huge revolution. I am not planet has the same right to drop litter, but starts to heal and reconcile, unify and take
sure the playground has time for this to that we can only drop a small amount each us forward, perhaps not in total fairness,
happen, but it has started. There is within the capacity of the planet to deal with but at least towards it.
voluntary carbon detox in individual states it. It says that the rich kids have blown their
and federal government and in the fair share massively already. But it tries to
*Dave Hampton was a sustainability
transition towns movement in the UK. embrace these spoilt brats in a global
consultant and Director of ABS before becoming
The second option is that all in the compact by treating them with kid gloves, 'The Carbon Coach'. He coaches individuals
playground agree some sort of overall forgetting about past injustice as long as (including celebrities, CEOs and VIPs) in their
optimum deal - some framework with the they commit to shrinking their bubble rapidly relationship with carbon dioxide and works with
wisdom of Solomon. Remember the one from here on. It creates the basis for big
school children and community groups.
WEM May 2008 17
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