How 2023 New Year’s intentions are an inspiring road map to a fairer, greener, and more peaceful planet
On the last day of 2022, I asked my followers on Twitter and Mastodon two questions.
- What is your main New Year’s intention?
- If there is one thing in the world that you could change in 2023, what would that be?
I just spent some time trying to categorize the 40 reactions that I received. It’s not a number that makes this a credible survey of my followers’ preferences, and they don’t represent a country, party, or any other group. But does this make their replies useless? Certainly not. I always look for insights into my followers’ interests, and these replies are interesting, especially at the beginning of the year, which is always a moment to think about themes and initiatives for the new year.
So what did the 40 followers answer?
On their main New Year’s intention, three clear trends were easy to find:
1. Live more sustainable lives.
In 2023 many want to live greener: use fewer fossil fuels by flying less and driving less. Some wrote we should do what we can to save the planet.
2. Plant-based
Some followers want to start following a plant-based diet in 2023. This may follow my previous point about saving the planet since eating meat is associated with more greenhouse gasses and animal cruelty. But it may also be a health consideration; some commented on healthy living and beating an eating disorder.
I’m happy to read this since I will again not eat meat or fish, although it comes so naturally to me that I hadn’t even thought of it as a good intention. My reasons for being a vegetarian are all three: it’s better for the planet, for animals, and for my health.
Someone wrote she also plans to grow more food. I applaud that since it’s locally produced food is better for the planet (think, for instance, about transport emissions when you buy New Zealand kiwis). It’s also healthier if grown organically, and I suppose animal friendly assuming we talk about plant food.
3. Consume less
A third trend related to saving the planet and food choices is the intention to consume less. For example, several people wrote that they plan to buy fewer clothes, spend less, use less paper, stop buying fireworks for New Year’s Eve, or want to declutter.
There is a clear trend in all three themes: living more sustainably and making wise choices that are better for the planet.
4. Laugh more
There was more, as you would expect. Some wrote about (sustainable) traveling. Others wrote about more writing, possibly combined with spending less time on social media.
And others wrote more generally about doing better or even doing the best you can, like the need to continue working on yourself and “working on my many flaws.” That can, for some, mean developing skills that you need to be able to perform all over the world. And I liked the comment of one reader: “laugh more, fear less, fearless.”
5. Kindness
And then there were quite a few people that wrote that they want to be more kind and do more good.
Before we go to the second question, let’s take a moment to summarize the individual good intentions for 2023. These forty followers of my social media accounts that took a moment to reply have a remarkable consistency in what they want to change. They care about the planet’s climate, animals, and people. They hope to do good, be kind, and become better citizens of this small beautiful planet by living better, greener, healthier, and more thoughtful lives.
I wish these forty people would be elected as world leaders, such as the heads of government in the forty most powerful countries in the world. It would give me hope for a better future on what should, under their thoughtful guidance, soon become a pretty cool planet.
World leaders
This brings me to the second question; the same group also wrote about the one thing in the world that they would change in 2023 if they could do it; in other words: what would be their governance priority if they would indeed become leaders of the 40 most powerful countries in the world?
1. Environment
Their wishes for the world are full of good intentions for the environment. Leaders should cooperate to save the planet and take climate change seriously. A wide range of concrete proposals is already put on the table by the 40 writers, from promoting vegan diets to reducing pollution and from insulating houses to preserving green spaces around cities. One reply was nicely formulated as a profound revision of the concept of “what I want is what I need.”
2. Food and animals
Some central themes from the first question, on individual good intention, return as government policies. We need better care for nature and animals. This is related to eradicating world hunger, food insecurity, and famine. Part of that solution is regenerative agriculture, so farming should be in harmony with nature. Local food should be promoted, just as seasonable eating and using rare breeds better suited to their regions.
3. Justice
A third theme in the replies to my second question about what to do if you could change one thing in the world is about tackling injustice. Responses came in many forms, but it was often about inequality and greed. For example, one reader mentioned making life more affordable for everyone, while another wrote about a more even distribution of money around the world. Someone formulated the aim as “a world no longer ruled by greed.”
Related to these comments on justice were priorities about education reform and healthcare. For instance, promoting a single-payer option of the US healthcare system (and I assume thus leading to an expansion of a more cost-effective and administratively efficient Medicare program to cover everyone in the United States).
4. No war
A top priority for many: no more war. By some, it was more formulated explicitly as stopping the war in Ukraine.
5. Stop hate and corruption.
The US and the UK are overrepresented in the reactions, reflecting political developments in recent years. There were comments on sending every high-profile criminal to prison for a long time and on “eliminating the conspiracy that breeds hate.” These remarks fall in the same group as comments on disinformation and “misleading the electorate, and lying by public servants and media personalities.”
And then there are comments like “corrupt Tories out,” “change the UK government,” and “Wales no longer being part of this unequal, despicable union.”
In the short space allowed in a tweet for suggesting how to change the world into a better place, I liked this one that seems to sum it all up:
“More kindness, love and peace on Earth for all countries at war, and freedom from all kinds of slavery for every woman and living being on this planet.”
Conclusion:
You may call me a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. Tonight, forty followers on Twitter and Mastodon joined me, who took a moment to reply to my questions about individual change and impactful change that could only be possible when in a powerful position. All forty dream about, and believe in, the positive power of change.
Change starts at the individual level by wasting less fossil fuel, eating fewer animal products, by voting for capable leaders with a long-term vision for a better, fairer, and cleaner world. Change at the individual level starts with kindness, respect for others, and acting upon it.
But systematic change asks for leadership, and that is where the second question comes in about the one thing in the world that you would change if you could. That explains the remarkable coherence between the answers to the first and the second questions. The environment, food, animal rights, equality, justice, and peace appear in the first and second wish list.
It’s ultimately about kindness and caring for others. So we could name it peace, which is much more than simply not having war. And, staying with Lennon, that’s all we are saying, give peace a chance.
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