In the last few years and particularly in the past year, I've become concerned about a lot of things I didn't know much about before. Things I don't know much about now but enough to be concerned. Things like war and the way we talk about war, think about war, perpetuate war, protest war. Things like poverty and the way hunger and starvation feel far away and for a dollar or donation we can at least forget about it for a while. Things like consumerism and how we are told our purpose in life is to consume, whether goods, ideas, experiences, or even our relationships. But this next one has been rolling around and reeling in my head as well--the misuse and overuse of our earth's resources and environment. The amazing thing is that these are all linked. War, poverty, consumerism, and environmental collapse.
Nobody likes to think about these things too much, including me. What a downer. What a depressing mess. What an overwhelming conglomeration of facts and figures that I feel as an individual can do little about. I'm not really going to even start in on those facts and figures and whether or not this whole thing is apocalyptic or "cyclical". For one thing, it is irrelevant. For another, anyone who digs a fingernail's depth into the existing information out there (and probably those who can conjure up their own powers of observation) will be able to deduce that we are not living in the most equitable, sustainable, and healthy way that we are capable of. We're not even trying very hard, most of us, or thinking much about how we could do better.
Instead, we are still saying things like "the economy would be better if the consumer would trust the market again" and "China and India aren't going to cut down their carbon emissions, so why should we?" Is this really our best? Is this even aiming at better?
I just attended a 350 event. Please refer to www.350.org to understand what that number means and why people all over the world attended events and organized today, October 24. It was a simple affair in a small town on a rainy night somewhere in the mountains of New York. It involved watching yet another compelling, depressing, state-of-the-Earth film (I seem to be watching lots of those lately...). I'm glad I went and I like the fact that people care sometimes. And that ultimately, millions do around the world. Even still, I had to drive a car to get there and I'm aware of the fact that as a Study Abroad Advisor I encourage students on a daily basis to fly on an airplane to some other place in the world. Flying on airplanes is about the worst thing a person can do when it comes to leaving a carbon footprint. But then again, people left with their own unchallenged worldview, particularly from powerful and influential nations like the United States, tend to carry on with the "business as usual" model and end up supporting (knowingly or unknowingly) oppressive structures or practices--like war, poverty, environmental degradation amongst others. But when they get outside of that, often times it is a powerful enough experience to challenge their thinking and affect transformation of their actions... So which is worse? Carbon footprints or missing out on the opportunity for a deeply meaningful cross-cultural experience?
I do not stand outside of my own judgment on these issues. I stand within a multiplicity of moral paradoxes.
I'm not sure more judgment is what the world needs either. Perhaps a bit more concern and awareness would be helpful, and certainly creativity and collaboration would accomplish more than the current modus operendi of so many of us. I like when Roland Robertson states that he is arguing for the "moral acceptance of complexity" in his book on globalization (1992). Why is that a moral choice? Because complexity suggests valid differences of perspectives, often clashing perspectives. No one person or group can fully know or understood the whole of any matter. Neither you nor I have the corner on all truth. This means we need each other.
Square One: Acceptance of complexity. These problems are way over my head and they are way over yours. But we need to strive to acknowledge what we face and work with one another to act in such a way socially, politically, economically , mentally, and spiritually so that we seek to "do no harm," acknowlege when we do, and then to do so much more in a positive direction. I do not feel a sense of ease or safety about the way that we are living on this planet. I do not have the Get Out of Jail Free card. But I do have a sense of hope in the possibilities of doing better with others for the sake of other human beings and the earth that we share.
P.S. If you are interested in facts and figures on the environment, let me know and I'd be happy to point you in the direction of several hundred resources.
