ENVIRO - MENTAL
We are the cause of the death of this planet.
In his 1993 groundbreaking book ‘The Ecology of Commerce’ Paul Hawken spends a chapter detailing how ‘Every natural system in the world today is in decline’ because of human ‘development’.
The chapter ‘the death of birth’ gives a brilliant snapshot on how the environment was at 1993. It was bad. But today it’s far worse.
There are many things that I find disturbing about the state of our planet, but one that I’ve been thinking on when reading this book is how we have individualized the problem and solution to appease our conscious.
We have been duped, either by ourselves or the structure, into thinking that we are to save this planet by recycling our rubbish, not using CFCs and leaving only foot prints. If we do this, then we are doing our part. If everybody does their part the world will be fine.
This is absurd and flawed. If we all recycle yet over consume the results will be the same, if we sponsor a child in
The corporate sector will still have blatant disregard environmental degradation because there are the externalities of an organization whose only legal concern is the maximization of product with the least amount of resource and effort.
The problem is the context and the structure.
If we are to exist much longer, there must be a total system over haul. We are not gods, we are not rulers we can not continue to usurp this planet, we are part of it. We are not gods over it –we are subject to it. This western biblical ideology that we have dominion over the world is wrong and will lead to our demise.
The question is, how and what do we change to move us back into the ecosystem?
I think you missed the point. I did not say that people recycling is insignificant, everybody should do it and im sure it helps a great deal. But this idea that recycling and using our car less will stop the degredation of our planet is flawd.
We are caught upn a global system wherein we cannot buy any product that has not been fumigated, modified, cerialed, packaged and carted halfway across the world. How did we get this product? From cheap labour and cheap land, land that has been cleard. In the past twenty years, the world’s forests have been reduced by 296 million acres. When forests are cleared it is the destruction of whole eco systems, systems that we are part of and will be seriously affected by.
The burning associated with the clearing of tropical forests placed 52 trillion kilograms of CO2 into the atmosphere. We are drawing down resources that took millions of years to create in order to supplement current consumption.
This cannot be solved by personal recycling. The core must be challanged. We must understand that do our little bit is not enough if we are to preserve a decent planet for our children.
We have to come up with a totally new and imaginative solution so that we can live as one with this world, not be its master. I don’t know what the solution is, but im thinking.
Posted by
Chris |
2/01/2006 10:30:00 am