Travelling to a conference
I have travelled to Paris from Northern Sweden by train. It took two days. Neither travelling itself nor my presence here is being of deep transformations. I can join most conference online, perhaps with few exceptions.
Train journeys make me appreciate the distance and the effort required to reach a far-away destination. However, these trains (such as ICE) are still very fast.
Here in Paris it is discouraging to experience extremely high temperatures and see extreme consumption at the same time. Here I refer to consumption in a very broad sense: shopping, consumption of places, mass consumption of 'culture' and landmarks, consumption of nature, of energy (air conditioning, data centres which store all the endless media people are producing while in Paris), etc.
I always travel lightly and bring very few items with me when I travel. When I looked around my room and saw a reusable water bottle, canvas bags, bread wrapped in paper, I thought that such attempts of a more ecological being in the world are rather insignificant. At the same time, if more people practised this mode of being, we would see less consumerism and more reflection.
Insect hotel in Paris. Similarly to the way I feel about my reusable water bottle in the sea of consumerism, the efforts to accommodate insects and other non-human beings are negligible. Though one can meet many rats and mice at night, especially near rubbish bins. These animals dwell in the same spaces where homeless people sleep. Homelessness and luxury co-exist, and people simply walk past.
I wonder, can Paris ever become post-growth? Is post-growth life possible here?
