Where are the life hacks that really matter?

The latest report from IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, presented in August 2021, had three main takeaways. 1. It is worse than we thought, 2. It gets even  worse faster than before and 3. We can still do something about it.

The first two really had us going, didn’t they? But then something happens. As soon as we hear that there is still time to act, it is like we think, ”Oh ok, we’ll take care of it later then”.

Many things have been said about mankind’s ability to procrastinate. There are even TED Talks trying to figure out why and how we do it. One thing that seems to help us snap out of the procrastination loop is deadlines. Deadlines accompanied with a fear of losing face or perhaps even your job, is usually a sure way to stop postponing things.

For Mankind versus Climate Change, however, it seems that we need more than deadlines. Science has now unequivocally concluded that mankind is to blame for climate change and also helped us set deadlines for certain achievements to avoid a catastrophe. One of the more well known deadlines is the same that the late JFK set for man to reach the moon: Before this decade is out!

But if mankind as a whole is as actionable as the worst kind of procrastinators, an eight-year-deadline wouldn’t be very effective. So what will make us snap into the kind of action mode prescribed by science? How can we trick ourselves into overcoming this habit of snoozing our lives and planet away?

We seem to be very resourceful when coming up with all kinds of solutions for useless things. We call them life hacks and there is no end to coming up with tricks on how to do pointless things smarter. Sealing opened yogurt cans with a straw for instance. Anything that could get us a bunch of likes and laughs will do.

But seriously, I think humanity really could use some life hacks right now. I suggest you use COP26, starting on Sunday, as an excuse to figure out how to hack yourself. If you come up with something that works, please spread the word. You may not get heaps of likes right now, but you will definitely get a big thumbs up in the history books of a brighter future.