Tom Bailey: Now is the time to ‘take The JUMP

Summary: The science shows citizens and communities are not powerless, instead as The JUMP founder explains, they can have a huge impact in protecting our earth, and have a fabulous time as they do it.

Humanity has achieved wonderful things and taken many great leaps. Today, as our world is on the edge of collapse, we need our greatest jump forward yet, one that reaches to the core of our lives and society. 

To understand why we need this jump, look at those places seemingly leading the way on the path to reducing damaging carbon emissions. For instance, sustainable cities in Scandinavia and North America are rightly much lauded for their green energy, efficient buildings and low-carbon public transport. These measures lead to a very low local environmental impact, which is obviously fantastic. 

However, the impact on global emissions from these places is often 10 to 15 times higher than the level needed to avoid climate catastrophe! Why is this? Because the environmental impact of imported food, manufactured products, travel, building materials investments and so on, are all felt elsewhere. 

So our best examples of a sustainable society are actually showing some of the highest greenhouse gas impact of anywhere in the world, putting us firmly on the path to climate catastrophe. This is a shocking wake-up call. All because the underlying focus remains ‘more stuff’, when over-consuming isn't even improving lives! We need to head in a new direction, now.

Backed by science

The science behind The JUMP unequivocally shows that we need a two-thirds reduction in the impact of consumption by those living comfortably, and this has to happen within just 10 years in order to prevent planetary collapse. The science and research also shows us how to do it. Governments and industry do indeed have most responsibility, but citizens and communities can and must have a huge role too. 

The evidence is also increasingly clear that the current response of relying on better technology and policy alone will not be enough. Moving to 'ethical consumption' or 'circular economies' - in the hope we can keep focusing all society's energy and creativity into the production and consumption of more stuff - will not be enough. We must tackle this head on, right now. 

Instead, the world’s systems (economics, politics, technology, education etc) are focused almost exclusively towards this goal of more stuff. As are our cultures ('successful people travel the world'), our mindsets ('more stuff is more happiness') and our behaviour (including our habits and addictions). These four dimensions of human society all reinforce each other in their shared focus, creating collective momentum for more and more stuff.

Today’s story: ‘Feeling low? Buy this’. ‘Want to fit in? Have this.’ ‘If you’re cultured; go here.’ ‘If you care for them; give this.’ ‘People like you eat this.’ ‘If you’re a good person; own this’. ‘You don’t matter… unless you succeed.’ ‘‘It will all be ok if you just BUY THIS.’  

This has to change. History shows us that updating our systems requires that we also update our mindsets, cultures and behaviours, because they are all interlinked. So our relationships, our thoughts and hopes, are all part of the solution. We can directly change things through action in our lives and communities. 

So many citizens around the world want to act, but feel powerless and confused about what they can do. Many attempts to activate citizens have suffered from mistakes. We need a 21st-century movement which gives citizens the clarity and the tools to start experimenting with the future we need. A movement which draws humanity away from the path to collapse, and onto one that leads to a joyful and prosperous future. 

Jump for joy

The JUMP will be a lively, positive and visible citizen movement leading the way to less stuff and more joy. It will create on-the-ground alternatives to a mindset, culture and world defined by consumerism. 

It will be centred on supportive communities of practice made up of citizens ‘taking the JUMP’ by trying the 6 SHIFTS. These are clear, radical but doable life shifts. The science behind the JUMP makes it clear that the billions of people living in relative comfort must urgently make these shifts in order to prevent ecological meltdown. No more confusion on whether you can have an impact or how: ‘take The JUMP’ and you can be sure you are playing your part. 

Just to try the six shifts, either as a citizen or as a community, is to challenge the underlying and almost universal law of today’s civilisation, that ‘more stuff will always mean more happiness’. A law that is not true but is pushing us to our extinction. Trying the shifts invites us to find alternatives. 

We will succeed because we’ll make The JUMP a 21st-century movement which  learns from the past. The JUMP Foundations nurture a positive, inclusive and resilient approach to change, with an atmosphere of humour, excitement and exploration. 

The JUMP Community Toolkit is there to support our ‘JUMP’, and provide a broad infrastructure of tools designed to help with resisting the day-to-day drivers of consumption, and contribute to the emergence of a connected movement with direction and momentum. A movement actively forging new and attractive cultures, mindsets and behaviours. 

The time is now

It’s perhaps not a surprise we haven't seen the transformation we need yet, because a critical mass of people are not calling for it. Perhaps we haven't been sure what it is. 

The JUMP won’t change everything overnight, but with scale and time, we will create the space, direction and pressure that history shows us is a necessary precondition for the transformative systemic shifts we need in technology, policy and economics. 

The science shows we need to find something radically different to this universal consumer society within a decade. So far there are no large-scale examples of what an alternative looks like.

 This is why we must take The JUMP now. The alternative isn’t a world of sacrifice, it’s a world of joy. Once we get a glimpse of what it looks and feels like, soon others will begin to follow.