Freedom: are you coming or going?

In our pandemic-stricken society, one question is burning under our nails: When will we get our freedom back? Let's take our experience of 'unfreedom' as an opportunity to think one step further: what freedom will we get back?

Will the freedoms we long for most of all now also withstand the crises that are already rioting loudly in the waiting room (climate crisis and species extinction)? Do we even have to choose? Freedom OR sustainability?

"If you come to a point where you have to choose between freedom and sustainability, I would always tend to be in favor of freedom when in doubt," says sustainability expert and economist Fred Luks in an interview. "Knowing that freedom will be worth very little if we don't manage the sustainability transformation." In his recently published book "Hope", he therefore does not exclude miracles from the calculation we make with our future. The power of the 'Fridays for Future' movement, for example, would be tantamount to such a miracle. He predicts that 2021 could be the year of sustainability.

Does our freedom end where it pushes our future into a corner? Many of the habits that characterize our everyday lives today are denied future viability. Because they are only suitable for a small (rich) part of humanity.

And apart from that, it has already earned us considerable overdraft interest. We consume 60% more resources than would be available to us each year. The mere idea that populous countries such as China or India might want to imitate the freedom of our overconsumption makes us shake at the knees. In order to enable eight billion people to live a sustainable, good and free life on this planet in the near future, we will probably need an extra dose of creativity.

And people who are able to pave the way for counter-designs to the current "normal". For example Johan Rockström, a climate scientist who has drawn up guard rails for the planet. Pragmatic boundaries that must not be crossed. And, conveniently, he also includes the appropriate recipes in his new cookbook.

Or the British economist Kate Raworth. She accepts these guard rails as a sporting challenge. And with her "donut economy", she puts an adapted "rethink economy" kit on the table. Which is being used in Amsterdam, for example, in the economic reconstruction after Corona. You can read more about the new "framework conditions" here.

It is dawning on many that we are at a turning point. And indeed, 2021 could see a historic, possibly even the biggest "deal" in human history. The "Global Deal for Nature". So we can look forward to this year's UN Biodiversity Summit in Kunming.

The 'deal' would be that half of our planet would be placed under protection or designated as climate stabilization zones in the next nine years. In the article "Half the Earth under protection?" we examine ideas that have inspired this "deal" from the scientific side: the "Half Earth" project and the "Global Safety Net".

Christine Sonvilla is not afraid of losing freedom if we allow nature more wilderness (again). The biologist and author of the book 'The Wild Heart of Europe' puts it in a nutshell in an interview: "Wilderness is our life insurance". Our civilization can only endure if wilderness also endures. Which does not mean a 'return to the Stone Age'. Rather, it is about better interweaving wilderness and civilization. Her motto for our wild future: "The wilder we become in our hearts, the easier it will be for us to accept the wild and unplanned outside."

It will probably be quite some time before we have shaken off the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. When will our lives feel free again in the conventional sense? That's written in the stars.

In any case, one thing seems relatively clear when it comes to the sustainability transformation: you won't be able to lure any dogs out from behind the stove in the near future with appeals to do without.

In order to be able to leave old, unsustainable patterns behind us as quickly as possible, and ideally with the pandemic, we need one thing above all: appetizers. Very specific ideas about what new freedoms await us.

As a tried and tested reward for being prepared to clean out the habits of our fossilized affluent society that are harmful to the future. In our article "New freedoms we can look forward to", we set out to find out what could enrich a good, fulfilling life in the future - and found what we were looking for.

And until then? Let's fuel sustainable fantasies. Because Astrid Lindgren already knew: "Everything great that happened in the world first took place in people's imaginations."

• "Hope" Fred Luks
• "The wild heart of Europe" Christine Sonvilla
• "Eat good - The cookbook that changes the world" Johan Rockström
• "The donut economy" Kate Raworth

About the author

Dr. Sybille Chiari is an expert on sustainability and climate change. At Werner Lampert GmbH, she is responsible for sustainability and climate communication and is part of the editorial team of the online magazine "Nachhaltigkeit. Rethink." Previously, she coordinated several international research projects in this field. She is part of the Scientists for Future movement and privately chairwoman of the Bele Co-Housing association, which runs a climate-friendly communal housing project with organic, regenerative agriculture in Upper Austria(www.belehof.at).