by Cassan O'Conlan

Created on: August 23, 2008   Last Updated: August 25, 2008

Sustainability or bust?

In the U.S., we've come a long way environmentally. Rachel Carson's ground-breaking book Silent Spring practically sparked the environmental movement in the United States; now American non-profits such as GreenPeace and the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have global prominence, influencing environmental politics as far away as Beijing. Thanks to increased awareness about humanity's effects on the planet, recycling is commonplace in our communities, schools, and businesses. Fortunately, with the leadership of Al Gore and others, 83% of Americans view climate change as a threat. But still, anthropocentrism pervades our society. We forget, or haven't learned, that all life is mutually reinforcing. Each species in a stable ecosystem plays a vital role, including humans. Problem is, we've lost touch with our natural mandate: to operate in peaceful coexistance with all life and the planet. Sometimes our spirituality dissuades us from appreciating the value of all life. As such, a number of questions remain:

Why are ordinary citizens are out of touch with nature? Why don't we appreciate all life as having intrinsic worth? And why are people disconnected from the environmental repercussions of their lifestyles?

The answer is simple, sort of. We live in a throw-away society that has lost respect for the complex ecology that sustains us. Consumerism and short-sighted economic "growth mania" has resulted in a disregard for the quality of life both human and otherwise. Through media, corporations and governments encourage us to consume, consume, and consume some more, as if the planet magically renews its reserves of oil or revitalizes its soil. Water and plastic are so cheap, for example, that we perceive them as basically endless, and we don't pay a price for wasting them. What we're left with is a world rife with pollution of the air, land, animals, and, most troublingly, ourselves. To our mild misfortune, corporations have exceeded governments in power and wealth, harming our ability to mitigate environmental problems.

In fact, by prioritizing profit margins over all else (including the public good), corporations have catalyzed a planetary pillage of unprecedented scale. Their influence on governments is incontrovertible and far-reaching, which has resulted in poor environmental management especially in the United States. And yet the fuel for such destruction lies in a long-standing philosophy of laissez-faire free-market capitalism.

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