Letter to the Editor
Think Green!: "Time to Grow Up"
Issue date: 3/17/10 Section: Voices
Dear Editor-in-Chief,
Much in our society has been lost in the static of 24-hour news media, talking heads and a slew of sensationalist claims and sound bytes. We follow humanity's most pressing issues like we follow celebrity scandals, basing our judgments on what amounts to the tabloid sections of debate and information. I want to unearth a particular issue from beneath its pile of politics and punditry, that being environmental sustainability.
Note how already a sort of visceral reaction is bubbling up within you. You may have already thought, "Damn that Al Gore!" But forget about Al Gore and any other face you attribute to environmentalism. Instead, let's start with you.
A basic fact of your existence is that you are an individual amongst individuals. No matter where you are, you're contained within a system of individuals sharing space and resources. Whether it's your apartment, campus, community, nation or world, you're always just one of a number of people sharing the means of survival. Now consider Thomas Malthus' argument: resources are limited and human consumption is exponential. So we're all doomed right? Enter sustainability.
When you were a kid, you might've thought dishes were unlimited. No matter how many cups you used, they would always reappear stacked and cleaned. Magic, right? Not quite. Your actions as a child were clearly unsustainable. It was only because your parents took the brunt end of your consumption habits (by doing the dishes) that you were able to believe acting in such a way had no consequences in the long term.
The example illustrates the crux of understanding sustainability, being able to "generalize" your actions. This means imagining a world in which everyone acts like you do. If years ago your parents chose only to dirty dishes, not clean them, soon enough your household would be eating lunch off of the kitchen table.
No duh, right? You do the dishes now. You get it. Perhaps your parents even demanded this of you as a child. Great, but let's fast forward to you today.
Much in our society has been lost in the static of 24-hour news media, talking heads and a slew of sensationalist claims and sound bytes. We follow humanity's most pressing issues like we follow celebrity scandals, basing our judgments on what amounts to the tabloid sections of debate and information. I want to unearth a particular issue from beneath its pile of politics and punditry, that being environmental sustainability.
Note how already a sort of visceral reaction is bubbling up within you. You may have already thought, "Damn that Al Gore!" But forget about Al Gore and any other face you attribute to environmentalism. Instead, let's start with you.
A basic fact of your existence is that you are an individual amongst individuals. No matter where you are, you're contained within a system of individuals sharing space and resources. Whether it's your apartment, campus, community, nation or world, you're always just one of a number of people sharing the means of survival. Now consider Thomas Malthus' argument: resources are limited and human consumption is exponential. So we're all doomed right? Enter sustainability.
When you were a kid, you might've thought dishes were unlimited. No matter how many cups you used, they would always reappear stacked and cleaned. Magic, right? Not quite. Your actions as a child were clearly unsustainable. It was only because your parents took the brunt end of your consumption habits (by doing the dishes) that you were able to believe acting in such a way had no consequences in the long term.
The example illustrates the crux of understanding sustainability, being able to "generalize" your actions. This means imagining a world in which everyone acts like you do. If years ago your parents chose only to dirty dishes, not clean them, soon enough your household would be eating lunch off of the kitchen table.
No duh, right? You do the dishes now. You get it. Perhaps your parents even demanded this of you as a child. Great, but let's fast forward to you today.
Article last update: 3/16/10 at 7:42 PM CST
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Bradley Reinkemeyer
posted 3/17/10 @ 12:39 PM CST
Great article. I agree that so many things have become political talking points when the real point is its just the right thing to do. Not that taking the extra effort to be green is easy but most of it is not what our parents would call difficult either. (Continued…)
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