About

My name is Toni, and I’m tired.

I created this blog back in 2011, with the hope of connecting with people in my local community and around the world who were sharing ideas and taking actions to push our societies toward a future that was “environmentally and economically sustainable, socially connected, joyful and meaningful.”

Since then, I went to work on an environmental development project in Peru, got a Masters degree in environmental policy, governance and development, relaunched a career in water policy and quietly became more depressed about the prospects of changing at the pace and scale that’s required to address the huge environmental challenges we face.

Over that time, I’ve gone from being a champion of individual responsibility to a weary warrior for systemic changes. The vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions, rubbish, pollution and resistance to change come from a small collection of very large and powerful companies that hold enormous interest in maintaining the status quo to protect the power and profits of a handful of billionaires and their hangers-on.

How they think money will protect them from ecological and social catastrophe is beyond me. They could lead the change and make life better for us all, and instead they’re choosing to be the last to go down when the ship sinks.

Their vision stinks.

We need radical, rapid, collaborative change that balances the common good with individual freedoms and responsibilities. We need to work intersectionally, globally, urgently. We need to let go of they ways we’ve grown up with and invested in, to imagine new models and structures. Once imagined, they can be created.

This is the work we need.

Will a little blog from a middle class white woman in a developed-world city make a jot of difference? Possibly not, though writing here helps me to hone my thinking, which makes me better at my job. Hopefully it also reaches to and resonates with others who have the privilege and opportunity to influence and to act.

We start here, where we are. We start in our local neighbourhoods and communities. We grow networks through shared hardships, experiences and values, working across and being strengthened by our differences and disagreements. We know that it’s more important to do something imperfect than let ideals hamstring our actions. Look for what binds people together; allow space for differences that too often tear us apart.

So this is the shape of things. A time of rapid and confronting change, massive societal shifts, unimaginable inequality, and increasing urgency. From chaos, crisis and change, new opportunities emerge. We must be bold and grab them, or we won’t stand a chance.

It’s up to us to shape of things to come.