Here’s one way to approach this. Next time you are driving down the road, look out the window at the flotsam and jetsam beside the roadway. Debris that has taken flight out the back of pickups, diapers, cans, cigarette butts. Close to where I live near Hwy 16 in Charlotte, NC, it’s a disgrace and a blight. Where is ICE, doing something useful detaining trash? Ha!. Sorry. The trash is a minor problem compared with the attitude of the perpetrators…they don’t care. Teaching children to pick up their scattered clothes on the bedroom floor and the mess they made with their food; not helicopter, you-are-my-buddy parenting but compassionate parenting that teaches responsibility, accountability, personal discipline. These are just small examples of lack of respect for our own immediate environs, not just lack of awareness (though that is a part of it). Turn off the lights when not in use. Don’t gun your engine, wasting fuel, or blast your car speakers to impress people that don’t give a rat’s ass about you, polluting the soundscape. Trashing your mind with gratuitous violence in movies and video games. Eating food that poisons your microbiome, fuels diabetes and Alzheimers–trashing your own body. The examples are endless.
Here’s another way to approach this, looking macroscopically at the origination and sustenance of life, three critical things for our being: earth, water and air. But we all know this, right? Why talk about it? Seems like there are two camps, those that usurp those resources for their own gain and deny they are the cause of the many problems we face, and those that feel we are caretakers with great responsibilities to preserve and enhance our treasures. Then there are a lot of us that know we are screwing things up, see some mitigations but don’t know how to reverse damage (I drive a car, it’s a hybrid, but, still…I keep my house warm in winter and cool in summer; I produce a lot of trash, even with composting and recycling; I killed a huge copperhead in my back yard but my grand daughters are still afraid to go out and play).
We like to acquire things, people, positions, accolades, etc. It’s never enough; just ask our tech bro billionaires (“But, we provide jobs and give people what they want.” Yes, as long as the quarter’s returns look good. I once worked for a company whose 5-year strategic plan was 20 quarters). The excuses for being greedy and for getting angry are asymptotic.
OK, some examples. Industrial fishing effects on fish populations and ocean health; and what is being done. Large-scale poultry farming issues. Plastic pollution of ocean and PFA’s. Environmental toxins in groundwater, e.g., Parkinkson Disease risk. Waste management. Air pollution. Songbird die-off and biodiversity loss. Many of those articles also point to progress in finding solutions.
It’s not really a question of who is bad or not and how to identify and punish the evildoers! It is always more complicated. I have known ranchers and farmers that care more for the land and the animals than a lot of consumers. Bird hunters and fishermen help to preserve wetlands and fisheries. “How” is central to solutions, and many, even in industrialized businesses are seeking compassionate approaches. It may be more difficult and expensive, but we consumers have an obligation to identify producers who incorporate ethical, humane and compassionate practices. Know where your food comes from, where your trash goes (and how to reduce it), what companies/corporations are acting ethically, are socially responsible, and whose boards of directors evaluate fiscal and administrative performance with an eye beyond just last quarter’s profits. “No Money, No Mission” may be true, but also, “No Mission, No Money.”
As a species, we are greedy. Perhaps that is a survival tool. Even “lower” animals are greedy. Socrates said that our capacity for reason obligates us to rise above that. Spinoza said our reason and devotion to Nature should allow us to rise above the ruling emotions. But take care–we can be greedy for money, or knowledge, or virtue–endless greed. But also, boundless compassion to set it to one side, here and there, now and then. This precious world is in our hands, whether we accept it or not. It seems too many choices are available to us, and not choosing is also a choice. May we choose wisely rather than out of greed or anger.
Next post: A return to the historically cyclic rise of power, corruption, personality cult, dominance and oppression as a raison d’être.
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