At La Bruguera, as many of our returning guests, friends, collaborators, cycling buddies and family know, we are responding to increased demand for environmentally educational experiences here. In adding new courses, we have had to be conscious that we don’t exclude certain demographics from this educational offering. Inequality is at the heart of the climate crisis and excluding anyone from an opportunity to learn how to fight climate injustice would be ironic and a lost opportunity to create a changemaker. Hence, today’s blog: environmental education, inequality and changemakers.
We have been working to add courses of different lengths and prices, as well as new types of accommodation, such as a camping area for tents or vans, in addition to the Bruguereta apartment and the Main Guest House.
On this topic of “class” or inequality, there is an interesting counterpoint, around making sure we do target the middle classes. Whilst the 1% – the world’s mega-elite – are responsible for over twice as many GHG emissions as the poorest 50%, this doesn’t let those of us in the middle classes off the hook. Oxfam’s Confronting Carbon Inequality report demonstrates that the world’s richest 10% account for over half of the carbon put into the atmosphere between 1990 and 2015. (If you don’t think that 25 year period is very long, consider that half of all the carbon EVER put in the atmosphere was put there after Al Gore released “An Inconvenient Truth”, his documentary about climate change, in 2006).
But here is the important bit, from our point of view: if you can afford to stay at La Bruguera, then YOU are within the richest 10% of people on the planet. If you aren’t convinced of this, take a minute to enter your annual household income into this online calculator, and click “calculate”. Surprised*? We were, when we first did this in 2010, and that has shaped our business goals ever since. You can also make a difference; it is important to know this.
So, whilst we want to make our courses available to anyone who wants to make a difference, we also want to make sure we are creating change and changemakers in the middle class. There are several reasons for this:
- We have direct contact with them- ahem – you. We also understand this demographic, as we are part of it, and we are under no illusion as to our own middle-class, Global North, privileged, standing-on-the-shoulders-of-colonialism origins.
- The 1% are, to a certain extent, untouchable by mere small businesses like us. However, the middle classes, given their disposable income and purchasing power, have a powerful vote, which can be exercised by altering their spending (and dramatically reducing it). The more we can help people change their buying behaviour, the more influence we have on those in the 1% and the friends they have bought in the seats of government.
- The middle classes have a big footprint in terms of climate change, and this is constantly growing, as the occidental idea of “success” is exported around the world to emerging economies, as capitalism spreads its imperative of endless growth.
So, we the middle class are not guilt-free, but more importantly we are many, and we can have a big impact on steering away from climate doom. We have more power than we realise. At La Bruguera, we have a direct connection into a middle-class community – our former and current guests and students, our followers, and our collaborators.
Things like Permaculture, Regenerative Agriculture, and Degrowth (click the links to explore key defining websites on each concept) are whole-systems ways of thinking but, are still niche approaches, as they buck the dominant socio-economic system which seeks to externalise the destruction of the environment from the cost of the products and services it relies on for creating wealth, power and recognition. But we don’t want these concepts to be niche anymore – they ought to be mainstreamed and brought to everyone, not just those on the edge of “the system” who already tend to have a low environmental footprint.
We’ve developed courses of different lengths and prices, with a range of accommodation options, to suit different budgets and lifestyles. We look forward to showing you what “abundance” can really mean, besides accumulating capital and assets, that don’t truly make you happy and healthy**.
If you are interested in learning more about Permaculture, we’ll be running two 1 week “Introduction to Permaculture” courses here in October (first in Spanish, then in English), an Urban Permaculture weekend, and a 4 day Planet Positive Living course. If you want to top-up your skills and knowledge for the coming age of climate insecurity, there is no better place to start, so get in touch with us for more info.
Whatsapp/Telegram +34 630 802 901
relax@labrugueradepubol.com
www.labrugueradepubol.com/events
* If you want to drill into this kind of income and inequality data more, have a peek at the World Inequality Database, here.
** and will be useless come the climate collapse
