Let's Think It Through

Dear Reader,

Many people still have their brains firmly anchored in the past and believe that sustainability is a luxury that we can’t afford in times of economic hardship.

The thought that the present economic hardship might have been caused to a large extent by our unsustainable way of doing business doesn’t seem to occur to them.

Part of the reason for that seems to be that as humans we have a fascinating shortcoming in our mental capacity: While we are capable of the most astounding (and terrifying) intellectual, scientific and technological achievements, we also seem to be incapable of thinking things through.

Therefore we spend most of our time and effort dealing with the unintended consequences of our previous actions and decisions.

It’s what government for instance is all about.

But it also applies on an individual level.

Every decision we make has implications - good, bad or indifferent - that we most likely don’t think about. And we don’t have to because we are not affected by those implications, or at least not directly.

That is another uncanny ability we humans have: Make somebody else pay for the consequences of our actions, be it our natural environment, society in general or future generations.

It reminds me of the definition of communism that my old economics teacher used to give: What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is none of your business.

We are a very communist society that way.

Most of the decisions we make are not spectacular or even necessarily harmful in themselves. But their effects are amplified, and then become harmful and spectacular, because there are so many of us who make the same little decision.

For example: If one person uses a plastic bag for groceries, it doesn’t have much impact in itself. But since millions of people do that, the consequences become enormous, from the amount of oil used to manufacture and transport the bags (even the ones made from corn need tremendous amounts of oil-based fertilizer and pesticides) to the danger they pose to wildlife, the amount of space they take up in landfills and the length of time they spend there without decaying.

Another example: When one person idles their car for two minutes while in the convenience store, the effect is negligeable (although it’s dumb because we are wasting gas and money), but since millions of people do that, ...

Or when we buy a cheap cut of meat in a grocery store, do we think about the manure lagoons, the hormones and antibiotics the animals are fed, the soil erosion, ... consequences we trigger through our purchase?

We probably don’t. But we should. And fortunately, alternatives are available.