April 21-27 has been declared the U.S. National Downshifting Week, where we're encouraged to take some time to slow down and re-evaluate our lives and our priorities. Accordingly, I'd like to follow on from yesterday's post on recycling, which breaks a little bad news to the unwary about the realities of recycling (i.e. solving our trash problem is not quite as simple as just sorting plastics into one bin, and aluminum cans into another), and will continue an examination of our present 'suicide by consumerism' economic model.
The following story from Australia's News.com well demonstrates the quandary we're in. We rely on our environment for survival, but our economy and our environment appear to be at odds with each other. Note the following (emphasis ours):
AUSTRALIA is concerned that growing guilt over the impact of jet flights on global warming could hit the country's multi-billion-dollar tourism industry, officials said.Australia, like everyone else, wants tourists, but the tourists are helping to destroy the very things they're coming to see.With long-distance airline flights virtually the only way of reaching "Down Under" and climate change threatening major attractions such as the Great Barrier Reef, the government has launched a "Tourism Action Plan".
"Tourism is a $75 billion dollar industry employing more than half a million Australians and is dependent upon a sustainable environment," Tourism Minister Fran Bailey said in a statement.
"For example, the Great Barrier Reef employs 33,000 people and generates more than $5.8 billion for our nation," she said.
Scientists have warned the reef's famous corals could be killed by rising sea temperatures blamed on global warming, which is in turn blamed on greenhouse gases from burning fuels such as those used by airlines. - News.com.au
So, what to do? Some airlines are offering offset options - but, does adding a couple of extra dollars to your air fare really cut it? The possibility your flight may get offset in, say, a century from now, is increasingly coming under fire as mere green-wash to soothe a troubled consumer's conscience. Some believe it merely encourages people to keep spending. Many believe that the only real way to make a difference is to simply cut down on unnecessary flying.
While the conservation message is getting preached in one corner, in the other corner airlines are doing back flips and other acrobatics to attract new business, so they can continue the aggressive secure-the-biggest-market-share approach. For example, I've had adverts for UK national flights forwarded to me that were as low as one penny!
It begs the question - how do we put the gun down? The example with flights above is just one of thousands we could share. In every sector of society, we have powerful industries and the all-important economy pitted against the environment and our future. Economic growth is the priority for many, but if growth must be perpetual then there is no point where we can say we've arrived, where we can say that we've clear-cut enough forests, we've polluted enough lakes and rivers, we've mined enough coal. How do we reconcile this economic model, based on infinite growth, with the fact the world's resources are clearly finite?
Like the Easter Islanders with their 'statue economy', must 'success' be based on destruction? If so, perhaps we need to re-evaluate our understanding of the term?
"We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered. A nation can flounder as readily in the face of moral and spiritual bankruptcy as it can through financial bankruptcy." - Dr. Martin Luther King, April, 1967I've always appreciated the following modern parable - which poignantly expresses our shallow understanding of success and 'wealth'.
The Mexican fishermanAlong a similar line is the story of the farmer - manually working his land with simple tools and tried and true sustainable methods. His family all get involved in different aspects of the farm, and they make a reasonable living selling their produce to local villagers and markets. The family take pride in their work and are a valued and respected part of their community.An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, "only a little while."
The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.
The American then asked, "but what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."
The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. Then with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several more boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats! Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."
The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"
To which the American replied, "15-20 years."
"But what then?"
The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions.. Then what?"
The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."
One day a traveling salesman convinces the farmer of the merits of purchasing a tractor - so he can farm a much greater area, reap greater profits, and have more time to spend with his family, and perhaps even have some afternoons to do nothing but go fish!
The farmer appreciates the salesman's logic, and loves the sight of the gleaming red tractor in the glossy catalog, and readily takes the plunge. Soon, however, the farmer discovers he must now grow a lot more food merely to pay the huge debt he has accrued to purchase the tractor, and for its ongoing maintenance. He must also put extra money aside to replace the tractor in ten years from now. He realises that a lot of the work he now undertakes is merely to pay the tractor company, finance company and the fuel company....
He also discovers that for each crop he grows he must have specialised attachments for his tractor, and since he can't afford all these he decides to limit the range of crops he grows. Because of his new monocrop system he now has too much of one thing to sell locally, so must, at personal and environmental expense, send his crops further afield where competitive market forces are outside of his control. Brokers play one distribution channel against the other, and the resulting meagre returns necessitates his getting further into debt to buy up neighbouring land - so he can grow yet more food....
The low carbon, low-risk, bio-diverse and environmentally friendly (i.e. resilient) system the farmer left behind is now just a nostalgic tear in the farmer's eye, and he's stuck in a cycle of destruction from which he cannot escape - at least not without selling the farm. And, the worst part is he has even less time than ever to spend with his family, and where he had previously been working for himself, he is now working for everyone else. The pride and care he put into his work, has turned into a race to the bottom against other individuals ensnared in the same cycle.
The true practical application of the lessons from these parables are something I'm still trying to incorporate into my own life - and, as many of our readers may appreciate, it's not so easy when the whole system we are just a small part of is working in the opposite direction. But, perhaps, if enough of us pioneer a way out of our consumeristic, suicidal tendencies, it must become easier for others to do the same.
Thoughts?
Further Reading:
