By Isabel Gleave and Melanie McQuigg (Y12)
As we began researching Ecolint alumni and author John Moorhead-Guinea ahead of our interview, we were struck by the diversity of his career. As a Cambridge graduate in the field of biology, he has had a career based in management, coaching, and consultancy across the globe in Switzerland, Mexico, and the USA. Mr Moorhead-Guinea now resides in Switzerland and is a founder of both “Climate Solutions Switzerland” and “Climate Action Acceleration.” He did not venture authorship until the tragic death of his son in an accident said to have likely been caused by climate change, because of which he has gone on to write two books “52 solar panels: Love and Grief for a Son and a Planet” and his latest, the first book in an ongoing tetralogy “How to Change the World Without Leaving Your Couch: Four Skills for Life in the Next Decade”. The latter is a personal guide as to how we as individuals can change the world and combat climate change, and it was the subject of our interview.
As we logged onto our first video interview with Mr Moorhead-Guinea, we were instantly greeted by a man clearly passionate about climate change activism. He seemed keen to gauge the context of the interview and our prior knowledge as interviewers before beginning with questions.
We began by asking him about the aforementioned tetralogy and why he felt it was important to begin with a personal guide rather than a book focussed on businesses and corporations’ impact on the climate polycrisis. It is “important to think about us as individuals in terms of the personal action we can take,” he responded. We should utilise the “skills we already have ‘inside’ us” to help with our individual understanding of the “complex situation that we are living through in terms of the climate polycrisis.” In essence, the decision to begin with a personal guide was because a majority of us humans wish to see a better response to climate change, and as a way to illustrate the power of individual action, instead of relying on governments and corporations to make the change. Throughout both interviews, Mr Moorhead-Guinea consistently directed questions towards us, the interviewers, asking us for our personal thoughts on topics and areas of discussion, allowing for an atmosphere of discussion rather than a formal interview.
Moreover, when questioned about his approach to writing for people perhaps sceptical about the power of the difference individuals can make, he shared that he tried to talk of “what is common to all of us”, for example “all of us want to protect things”, whether it is the surrounding nature, our “health” or our “children”. Mr Moorhead-Guinea then introduced the concept, which in many ways forms the foundation of his book, which is the four skills we all possess: “curiosity, critical thinking, attunement, and imagination.” These allow us to enact change by reviewing, understanding, and allowing discussion surrounding the climate polycrisis. He stated that “imagination” was something “young people in particular can bring a lot of” in comparison to some older people who may be “less and less imaginative” and therefore “see fewer opportunities”. “Do we want to spend our time making too much money that we can’t even spend, or do we want to spend it on other activities which are perhaps more meaningful?”, he pointed out.
The world is becoming increasingly frightening, with it at times feeling almost dystopian, and we asked how Mr Moorhead-Guinea attempted to balance hope with realism when writing his book. He responded that he tried to use the principle of “radical honesty” and the importance of recognising the “devastation” and “grief” and the importance of not giving “false hope”. And yet he also attempted to “express how being honest with each other and sharing our emotions and how we feel about different situations can lead to tremendous things.” That’s again why he chose to begin with a personal guide to stress the magnitude of making switches like changing to a “plant-based diet”, “cycling to school”, and supporting “grassroots movements”, but he also addressed through his use of “radical honesty” the shortcomings of individual action due to continual “exploitation from big corporations” as they continue to do “everything in their power to overproduce and therefore achieve overconsumption”.
Thus, the first interview came to a close, it was clear that the focus of Mr Moorhead-Guinea’s writing was on telling the stark truth but in a way that inspired: thought, conversation and ultimately personal action. In the second interview, questions centred firmly on the contents of the book in comparison to contemporary political and social issues.