Greed and Sharing in the Future
A sub-analysis drawn from the student Climate-Change Research Project
Geoff Bridgman – Department of Social Practice
Introduction
Sir David King, UK’s former chief science advisor describes
the war in Iraq as “the first of this century's ‘resource wars’”1
and warns of impacts of resource depletion, population
growth and climate change on our standard of living in the
21st century. Fundamental changes in the way we live are
needed, and consumerism may not be the model for survival
in the future. On the other hand, a 2007 European
Commission article on combating climate change argues that
despite the fact that
“climate change is one of the greatest threats facing
the planet” (p5).......this does not mean sacrificing
our standard of living (p8)”.2
If we are to avoid “resource wars” then a different approach
to acquisition and sharing of resources may be needed. This
analysis explores the way in which ideas about greed, sharing
and collaboration play out in the present and future
scenarios described by the participants in a sample of thirtysix people with statistically similar demographic features to
the population of Waitakere City. In thinking about the future. will this diverse group imagine
cooperative strategies designed to fairly share increasingly scarce resources, will they believe we can
prevent climate change and resource depletion while continuing to hold onto our current standard
of living, or will they not concern themselves at all with these issues?
Using the Semiotic square
I started with the word “greed” as
a way into the exploration of
exploitation of people and the
environment. Using the semiotic
square (a mechanism for
generating complementary and
contrasting meanings around key
words), I created a continuum of
“greed vs generosity”. Synonyms
for generosity included “caring”
and “kindness”. Their
complementary partners of
“uncaring” and “unkind” brought
1
Randerson, J. (2009) UK's ex-science chief predicts century of 'resource' wars. The Guardian, Friday 13
February 2009. Retrieved 29/05/2009.
2
European Commission (2007). Combating climate change - The EU leads the way, Directorate-General for
Communication. European Commission. Brussels. Retrieved 29/05/2009 from
http://ec.europa.eu/publications/booklets/move/70/en.pdf
up contrary concepts of “sharing”, “helping”, “supporting”, “collaboration” and “cooperation”.
These words, in contrast to “greed”, underpin the concepts of sustainability of relationships
between people, and between people and their environments. I then sought their synonyms and
antonyms - words such as “selfish”, “self- focussed”, “mean”, “obstructive”, “dependent”, "rich”
and “poor”, including the marked forms and variations of these words (e.g. “depend” to
“dependent”, “independent” “interdependent”, etc).
Many of these words or roots like “kind-”. “self-“, “mean-”. “obstruct-”, “generous-” “collaborat“and “cooperat-“ occurred rarely in or were entirely absent from the transcript, or were used with
a meaning that was not connected to my greed-sharing semiotic square. For example, “kind” almost
always meant “sort” as in “kind/sort of weird”. So the analysis focuses on words which were
relevantly used. To these I added some more general words such as “wealth”. “money” “income” ,
“relationship” and “community” that could access the meanings that I was seeking. As well I read all
the transcripts for text that fitted with this greed-sharing theme.
Exploitation: greed and rich vs poor in the future
“Money” comes into the transcripts of 75% of the
participants, but only sixteen (44%) participants talked
about “greed” or “greedy” (6), the “rich” (8) and the
“poor” (7), “poverty” (1), being “selfish”(1), or the use
or money , wealth or income in relation to
exploitation (4). Some participants described human
nature as “greedy” (Yani), and despaired about the
“unfair[ness]” of greed (Ella) or the unchangeable
quality of greed within us all:
“You know there’s greed .. no matter
what you do” (Grantham).
Others connected greed to the “profit” motive
(Tatyana), to competition (“keeping up with Joneses”;
Billy) or to capitalism in general:
“I see a documentary about it [famine], and it gives
me an awareness
of [the role] that
famine
[in] particular capitalism and greed [play]... and all of
these issues come down to those things you know. In
order for people to get rich or to make money to make
themselves better than someone else they are poisoning
our planet, they are poisoning our minds you know.”
{Michelle}
Ella commented specifically on how greed such as “mass fishing
“was destroying resources (“ ...it’s so selfish!”)
Some participants suggest that the hierarchical structure of
society prevents change. Joice believes this recession will lead
to another:
“and it will get harder and harder.... the rich are getting
richer and the poor are going to get poorer.”
Others were concerned about the continued entitlement of the rich and entrenched position
of the poor:
“[the] rich [will continue to] build mansions on the waters edge” (Grace),
“the government don’t do [didly] squat for the poorer part of the population, they just give
more money to the rich.”, (Bernard) and
“There will be a huge difference between the ‘haves and the have nots' and it will be the
people in the world that can afford the technology, and then we will have the extremely
poor people that will be worse off” (Xavier).
Similar sentiments were expressed by Matiu, Michelle, Raewyn and Billy, who, along with Grace
make up five of the seven sole parents in the sample. The contrast of rich and poor may be a
significant issue for this more vulnerable group. “Rich” includes climate change advocates amongst
the exploiters:
“Somebody is making profit out of global warming ,,,,, a classic example is that movie ‘An
Inconvenient Truth’ - Al Gore made a fortune out of that.”
Not all participants who
refer to the issue of wealth
are concerned that the rich
may harm the future.
Abebe says he “can see
[him]self being rich” in the
future. When Jack is asked:
“Are those with the
money going to be
as badly affected as
the people who are
living in poverty?”
He replies: “Right. And
that’s always been the way.
Sadly. Yeah”, but not,
“sad” for Jack, as he “earns
a very good income”.
Al Gore exploiting climate change?
Others feel that solving the
rich vs poor power imbalance is not the central issue for the future.
Bernard lives “in a community that’s very poor” that he has seen “grow and blossom”. He feels that
progress is all about “personal growth and learning to live in this world”. Grace agrees. She has a
friend who is “lucky he’s used to being poor.” Moving to a future where we need less is about a
fundamental change in consciousness. Matelita was “rich”. She had a “life [that] was good...... all the
fun, and the power”, but her consciousness changed:
“[I] lost my childhood way of thinking and reached the maturity of adultness – it was a
change of mindset, and I like it.”
Billy describes the change needed:
“It’s not all about “bling”, and
who’s the head honcho, and
that applies to all aspects of
the New Zealand community.
It’s about community and
having a nice country to live in
and it’s not about trying to
accumulate wealth at the
expense of relationships and
your neighbour.”
The value of community
Apart from an over-representation of
sole parents, those participants most
concerned about the impact of greed
and inequity in the future have similar
mixture of age, gender, culture,
occupation, education to the rest of
the sample.
Sustainability in the past and present
Ninety three percent of participants used the following roots of sustainability words3:
 “car- “ in “care” (13) “careful” (5), “carefree” (1) and “childcare” (1)
 “help-“ in “help” (18), ”helping” (4) and “helpful” (1)
 “shar-“ in “share” (6), “sharing”(2) and “sharemarket” (1); and
 “support-“ in “support” (10), “supporting” (2), “supporter” (1) and “supportive”(4)
Instances of participants using “community” (10) and “relationships” (0) in connection with
sustainability were also explored.
non-European migrants
3
Much of the usage of these sustainability words
describes a past or present rather than a future
context. Ten non-European migrants, seven of whom
are women, use helping and caring around
supporting and being supported by family. Ming and
Vailima “care” for family members including a child
who has a disability; Mae wants to “help” her family
more and likes “to have family around [because] it’s
good to share things together”; Tina , Matelita and
Vailima talk about how family members “help” them
at home or with their businesses. For the men,
Alebe, Mr Wang and Mr A, need to ”help” and
“support” their family members “back home
financially”. Mr A has to “take care for [him]self very
well”, because his family depends on him. One
woman, Alice, has to “send money back home” to
“help” her husband.
A number of words from these roots were not found at all – e.g. “cared”, “caring”,
Two other women use “help” in relation to family death. Joy feels the interview will help her in her
“grieving process” about her recently departed mother and the death of Michelle’s ex-father-in-law
has helped the relationship she has with her ex-partner.
Apart from the financial support of families, where men use sustainability words relationally, it is
beyond the family. Iga’s “old friends” have helped him and Sam has been “helping out” at a
childcare centre. Focussing more on the issues of social justice and structural inequity, Billy wants
social “frameworks” that “help people .....go places; Rich is “active in [his] community volunteering
[his] services supporting other people” and Bernard is “helping the neighbours down the road” as:
“they find it tough buying healthy food, due to money, so we see giving them our excess
produce as a way to help them and a way to keep our food waste low”.
Sara, not yet an activist, has “always wanted to help people”.
Where “support” is used, it often refers to a political process.
Billy describes the limitations of “National Party supporters”
around social justice, and while Tina “supports any political party
that helps the community”, she does not “like [the Greens] funny
policies”. Jack and Vince are "more supportive
of the Green Party” than they used to be and
Tama and Xavier “definitely support the
Greens”.
Just as it men tend to be the ones that talk about the politics of sustainability, they are also the ones
that see “technology” as helpful in their “careers” (Billy), making their lives “much more easier”
(Jim), and overall - “a great thing” (Vince).
Generally the use of sustainability words in past and present contexts shows the centrality of family
relationships for non-European migrants, particularly for women. Men’s relational focus, and
particularly for New Zealanders and European migrants, looks outside family towards local and
national communities and the politics of structural inequity that arise from climate change and
resource depletion.
This is where we are
Sustainability in the future
The future perspective
brings issues of
environmental sustainability
into sharper focus. Nearly
40% of the sample talk
about being more “careful”
about the environment and
“helping” and “supporting”
sustainability practices. Joy,
Sara, Jack, Tina and Sam
want to be “careful about
our electricity use”, and
“mindful about wasting
water”.
Tina, Ming and Yani “support recycling ....to help our planet
and our future” and Yani and VInce favour “public transport
days [and]... carpooling”.
Yani and Tina would like to see more “growing our own
food”, using “organic compost” and planting trees. Joy is
“careful” to address her “family’s NEEDS [not] WANTS”.
Raewyn wants ”humanity [to] get on board with taking care
of their own environment” and Tatyana believes that:
“We should treat [God’s] creation with respect and
not pollute it or take it for granted - we should do
our best to care for it and for each other.”
Other participants agree that “Christian values” (Joy) will
help sustainability, that “God will ...pour out his Spirit”
(Matelita), and “handle the future” as:
“The reality is everybody will die, but ...thinking
about [climate change] ...all the time...won’t give me
any good, I suppose, or any help at all.” (Vailima)
In a similar hopeful vein, Xavier thinks “technology will help
in finding new ways of doing things” and through technology
our:
“...grandchildren [will] have their own blessing. This
means they can do something to make their life
wonderful by themselves”. (Kozo)
Will God pour out his spirit?
Jim worries that “some people don’t really care where they throw their rubbish” and Sosifa feels
that “they're not educated to even care about other people”, and that more education would
“help”.
Even some of the
participants could be needing
Rubbish on the shoreline
education. Tatyana says that it is
“not that I don’t care, it is that I am
too busy” to worry about the
environment. Michelle agrees - “I
don’t think about those things”,
and Kozo “doesn’t care” about the
future because it “is not [his] turn
to worry about it. Let the right
people or [the] government ...
worry”.
Tama, Sara and Grace (all New
Zealanders) see the world as
“becoming a dangerous place” and
want us to “be careful in how many
people we let in”. Grace “would be
more careful about where to
travel” because she would not like
to confront people who were
“starving”. Most pessimistic is Rich
who anticipates “help” for over-population from “ a war or a plague or something”.
The concept of sharing more as a response to resource depletion is hard to find in the transcripts.
Joice wants to be “still sharing a relationship with [her] partner” when they retire, and Mae would
like a husband because:
“When you are on your own, …it’s superficial … you don’t buy any[thing] if you can’t find
someone you can share [with], you know.”
Billy looks forward to a relationship where “you are on the same page and support each other ...
straight forward and simple... a long term partnership”.
Ned wants to share his knowledge with his children and grandchildren about “what [he] wants them
to do in their lifetime”. Ming, on the other hand, shares her knowledge on climate change with
“nobody - I just do what I do.” “Sharing a car” (Alice) or sharing “a power source....or decent public
transport” (Grantham) is about as far as the participants are prepared to go with “sharing”.
independence
In fact being independent is a stronger theme than
sharing or interdependence (which is not named by
anyone). Eight participants talk positively about
looking forward to the independence of their children
(Alan, Bernard, Sosifa and Michelle), of completing
study and being financially independent (Raewyn, Ned
and Mae), and of anticipating the independence of
retirement (“this magical day where I will be free and
able to do things”, Michelle and Huia). Joy is unhappy
about her dependence on having a car, and Jack is
looking for a way to live where he can be independent
of “the resources everyone else is competing for”, and
the governments that control those resources:
“Going by my recent history, I think the
extent to which I can decrease my
dependence on governments in
particular, the better off I’m going to be.”
However, there are limits on independence as two
of the older participants point out. Bernard’s
children “will stay quite dependant on the
whanau, as family is central to us”, and Michelle’s:
“magical day ... will probably will never
happen ......as I will want to care for my
children and grand children.”
Finally, there are seven participants who are
striving towards a more relational and
communitarian future. Matiu is taking on a
responsibility for the future of his extended family:
Watching our kids grow – planting
trees
“Watching my kids grow, and when I
mean kids I also mean my nephews,
nieces and cousins, I will be
supporting them through the good
and the bad”.
Raewyn is active in her community:
“ ...[not} in a national way but as a
member of a community. I go to stream
cleaning and planting trees on community
organised events and planting day’s trees for babies.”,
Iga wants to mobilize his community:
“I don’t mind doing recycling in my
family, and telling them why I’m doing
it, and telling it on to my friends about
it, you know spreading it and telling
them about climate change and they
Recycling
should take actions too, coz one
person can’t change a thing, a whole
community should come together and make a change, yeah?”
Vince believes that there will be:
“ an increased sense of community, I think people will start to realise that individually we
can achieve a lot less, and that’s very vague....., it’s kinda weird that you can live such close
proximity to people and not [connect] ..... I go to church and I believe, I totally see that that
side of things works.... I very much feel like I belong in that sort of community. ..... I just
hope people would become a bit more savvy about just looking out for other people,
whether that’s done on a more community framework I don’t know.”
Xavier asks us to:
“spend more time thinking about [our] similarities, rather than [our] differences and
realising that we are all one race and start helping each other out.”
Matelita hopes that:
“ if each person took time to help one
need of another person, it would make a
difference to our future. I also hope to
make better and wiser choices.”
Bernard worries about “tough times” , increasing
“individualism” and that he may not be able to
support his whanau and his community in the
future. He wants people to “look after the
environment better ...and not destroy the
landscape for my mokopuna”. His hope is:
“that my kids will take an active part in
this and pass it on to their kids and that
this continues. I want to know that my
family will be able to look after the land
The “necessary” vege patch
and the sea and help preserve it with all other people who are interested in undertaking
this. I have been teaching them not to waste the resources they have. For example they
have been gathering kaimoana from the sea in the last two days. I have asked them not to
waste it, to use as much of what they have gathered so far and anything they cannot use, to
put it in the compost heap which will then be used to fertilise our vege patch...I feel by doing
this that I am helping them so that when I am no longer around they can take up the
responsibility of peacemaker. I am always living in hope.. ………………….. This vege patch is a
necessity for us.
It keeps our food bills lower so more money can be put back into the whanau..... Sometimes we
grow a lot of vegetables and we don’t want to waste them so we take them down the road to our
neighbours.”
Conclusion
Returning to the key concept of “resource wars”, it is clear that greed, fear about migration, and the
“dangerous place” the world is becoming, are concerns for many of our representative Waitakere
participants. At the same time many expect technology, God or even the government to protect our
standard of living – the other key concept of our introduction. Participants are generally willing to
adopt sustainable practices around conservation, one or two to the extent of being independent in
energy and water. When we look at sustainable practice around community, three rough scenarios
emerge. Firstly, there are ten migrant participants who have a strong focus on family, which is likely
to be a pre-requisite for community engagement and hopefully a future focus on sustainability, but
who, at present, are not much engaged. Secondly there is a bigger middle group who are at least
engaged in recycling and understand something of how that connects with sustainability. Thirdly,
there are nine participants (only a quarter of our sample), Maori, Pasifika and Pakeha who, in the
analysis of exploitation through greed, identified a future in which we will want less, and/or, in the
analysis of sustainability through sharing, identified a more relational and communitarian future. Of
these nine people, five are young, four have no qualifications, six are not in work, and seven are not
in a relationship. The knowledge and practice that will, in Bernard’s words, enable us:
“to look after the land and the sea and to and help preserve it with all other people
who are interested in undertaking this”,
is not necessarily held by those who are most educated, experienced, supported or powerful.
looking after the land and the sea