A Word On Efficiency

There are a lot of people wasting a lot of precious time and energy in an attempt to “debunk” environmentalist’s warnings about global warming and the destruction of the environment. I think people would prefer to spend their time and energy toward a positive effect on the world, by not only spreading warnings of environmental destruction, but by studying and sharing or teaching the wonders of positive things such as sustainable development, clean energy, eco-design, Permaculture and so on.

I see no point in ignoring the warnings of people who have dedicated their life to the study of saving the planet.

The reason most often given for debunking the words of environmentalists is the inconvenience it supposedly causes to the economy (or, more accurately, the inconvenience it causes to major corporations who make their gross profits directly or in-directly through the destruction of the environment).

I believe that if you think through this rationale, most logical people will find that it’s simply shortsighted thinking. Of what use is a good economy in an uninhabitable world? Of what use is it to amass a great fortune for your family if the world the future generations inherit is impossible to live in?

My father always told me that if you borrow something, you should return it in better shape than when you got it. I like to keep this in mind when I think about this world I live in. This world is not mine to do with as I wish. This planet belongs to every living thing living on it. I am borrowing it. I should leave it in better condition than it in was when I arrived for the sake of future generations to come, specifically my children and their children.

It’s not just my responsibility it’s also my duty. If I wish to hasten the end of humanity, than I can take advantage of the worlds resources for my own selfish purposes, if I wish to aid the survival of humanity for as long as possible, I must think about sustainability, and conservation of nature.

To achieve this goal, we have to use our time and energy efficiently. We have to spend it in a positive way. We have to take action with our lives and use our words wisely. We must point our words in the right direction toward improving the world we live in, not in the downward spiral of destruction caused by careless reasoning and inefficiently wasting our time complaining about the inconvenience of environmentalists to the economy.

Let’s pretend for a moment that the Republican conservative argument is right, and that of all the dangers facing our environment, Global Warming doesn’t exist, and if it does, it’s not the fault of humans, nature taking it’s natural course for the better. What good does this knowledge do us?

Let’s remember the words of Seneca, “For even if you admit that they say all this in good faith, even if they guarantee the truth of their statements, whose mistakes will thereby be lessened? Whose passions restrained? Who will be made more free, more just, more magnanimous? Our Fabianus used to say that sometimes he wondered whether it was better not to be involved in any researches than to get entangled in these.”

To put Seneca’s words into context for today’s situation, I can say that the passions of the corporations will not be restrained, they shall be lit on fire, and they shall no longer have to care about the CO2 emissions that they spew into the air, their mistakes shall be lessened, and they shall be excused from the responsibility they have to clean up any messes they have so graciously given us in the name of profit. They will be made free to do as they wish without guilt, while we become enslaved to live in the poorer environment they create.

Saying we have nothing to worry about amounts to nothing more than denial, and denial is not a positive action. The first step to solving a problem is admitting that you have one. We, the people of this planet do have a problem and it’s people fighting against environmentalists, fighting against each other instead of working together in a positive way to better this world we all share.

These last three words are a key to solving many of the world’s problems. A shift in thinking is needed from “Us vs. Them” to “We vs. Ourselves”. By this, I mean that it is the fault of all humans that war exists. It is the fault of all humans that the environment is being destroyed. It is the fault of all humans that there is starvation or homelessness. We are all responsible. These things exist because we, the people, allow it to exist.

There is not just one evil person, or country, or company. Evil exists, because we all support it, we all allow it to happen.

A wise old Native American by the name of Rolling Thunder once said, “When enough people want peace, there will be peace.” We can expand this to say that when enough people want a better world, there will be a better world. But we have to be united. To be united, we have to start working together. We have to stop fighting the people who are trying to make things better, and start fighting the people who are trying to destroy it for their own selfish purposes. When I say fight them, I mean that we have to fight for their minds. We have to fight with the weapons of logic and truth in debate to get them on our side so we can all work together.

Furthermore, to be united, we must stop thinking of ourselves as competitors for the earth via our religion, our country, or economic status. We cannot all survive with this winner-loser competitive streak. We will either all lose in the end, or all win by uniting to create a better world.

Environmentalist David Suzuki, who was recently voted “greatest Canadian alive,” for his work for the environment stated in a recent interview that “The very definition of what it is to be human is that we were unique among all the other animals on the African plain in that we had foresight. Our survival strategy was foresight…we know clearly where we’re going, but we’re not even paying attention. So that’s the tragedy, we’ve turned our back on the very thing that was the key to our survival. “

Wasting our time on the denying of the dilapidated state of the environment, is turning our back on ourselves to run us all headlong and headstrong, like lemmings over a cliff. It is to shun our survival instinct. I can think of a million more pro-active ways to spend our time. The first would be to educate ourselves and each other to the dangers we face, and the second would be to take whatever action that lies in our power to avoid those dangers.

To do anything else, would simply be a waste of time, and a waste of this earth we inherited and share with each other and generations to come.