#14 The World Is Burning and We’re Still Debating the Menu: Why Sustainability Keeps Failing – and What That Says About Us

Let’s stop pretending. We know what’s happening. We’re watching the world burn in real-time. Rising temperatures, dying oceans, collapsing ecosystems, while sipping lattes and scrolling TikTok.

This isn’t just a climate crisis. This is a deep systems failure. A collective moral breakdown. A slow-motion suicide dressed as economic progress. The problem is not that we don’t know. It’s that we don’t act. The science is crystal clear. IPCC. FAO. The Lancet. Report after report screams the same thing: change course or crash the planet. And yet, everything continues. Like nothing’s wrong.

Why? Because the system is not broken. It is perfectly designed to produce this result.

We built our economy on extraction of oil, land, people, and now attention. Governments are locked in short-term cycles. Corporates are wired for profit, not the planet. And people, you, me, everyone, are trapped in a culture of convenience. We know what’s right but do what’s easy.

The Food Industry: A Perfect Mirror of the Madness

Let’s zoom in. Food, something so basic, has become a machine of destruction. Industrial farming fuels deforestation. Big dairy and meat are top climate offenders. Ultra-processed junk drives obesity and hunger, at the same time. And still, companies market, governments subsidise, and supermarkets discount. It’s a toxic loop. Everyone blames everyone, and nothing changes.

Meanwhile, startups and small producers trying to fix the system get ignored, underfunded, or blocked by regulations built to protect the old way.

The Triangle of Denial: Government, Business, People

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: governments blame markets, corporates blame consumers, and consumers blame lack of choice. The result? Everyone is guilty. No one is responsible. It’s a Dutch polder model gone global. Endless consensus, zero courage. While we ‘pilot’ our way into collapse.

Psychology Kills Progress

Why don’t we act? Because it’s scary. Because it feels too big. Because change hurts. Climate psychologists talk about the five D’s: Distance, Doom, Dissonance, Denial, and Identity. Climate feels far away. The news makes us numb. We don’t want to be the first to sacrifice. We want change – but without giving anything up.

We’ve become addicted to comfort. Paralysed by knowledge. And too distracted to care.

Sustainability Has a Branding Problem

Let’s be honest. Sustainability sounds like broccoli. Necessary but boring. Good for later, not for now. That’s the PR problem of our time. But sustainability isn’t about less. It’s about better. Better food, made without rainforest destruction. Better energy, without choking the air. Better business, where profit doesn’t require plundering. This isn’t about being woke. It’s about being awake.

What Needs to Change? Everything.

We need governments with guts, not slogans. We need businesses that take responsibility for the full cost of what they sell. And we need people who stop waiting for permission and start changing what’s on their plate, in their home, in their vote.

This isn’t a tech problem. This is a values problem. We don’t need more innovation. We need more courage.

This Is a call and not a campaign. I’m not writing this as an expert. I’m writing this as someone who’s had enough. Enough greenwashing. Enough excuses. Enough hoping someone else will fix it. We need to break the triangle of blame. And replace it with a triangle of action: accountability, agency, alignment. What we produce must align with what we value. What we consume must reflect who we want to be. What we regulate must protect the future, not the past.

So, tell me: what do you see? What’s your experience? What’s holding you back – or pushing you forward?