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Sustainability?
I am not going to lie. Sustainability is something that I have considered for years, but still feel that I have very little understanding of it.
I am concerned about the environment and have been taking slow strides to lessen my impact. I only compact fluorescent lights, I service my car regularly so that I can maintain decent fuel efficiency (it is an old Volvo so it does not get the best mileage), I buy local fruits and vegetables when it is feasible to do so, I grow my own food in the Summer, I make what I can around the apartment so that I do not have to buy it, I buy used whenever possible, and I walk to and from school and work almost everyday (it amounts to a few miles a day).
Still, however, I do not believe that I live sustainably. The electricity that I use comes from dirty coal burning power plants, there are three computers in my household, there are two cell phones in my household, and I have a one and half year old daughter that requires nearly constant spending of some sort (this is rough because everything for children these days is crappy plastic made from melamine).
I live on a budget so I cannot make many more accommodations to the 'green movement.' I am wondering is true sustainability possible given the way we live and the way we were socialized? Now when I ask this question I am asking from an American perspective. After 200 years of material culture being driven into us, it seems unlikely that we will be able to shift our cultural paradigm during our generation, excepting, of course, the chance for environmental breakdown. I am relatively certain that it will take two or three generations before we can right the wrongs that we have been committing against the planet. But is this soon enough and can we really say that these small efforts we make are sustainable or they just closer to sustainability than we were a decade ago?
What are your views?
I am concerned about the environment and have been taking slow strides to lessen my impact. I only compact fluorescent lights, I service my car regularly so that I can maintain decent fuel efficiency (it is an old Volvo so it does not get the best mileage), I buy local fruits and vegetables when it is feasible to do so, I grow my own food in the Summer, I make what I can around the apartment so that I do not have to buy it, I buy used whenever possible, and I walk to and from school and work almost everyday (it amounts to a few miles a day).
Still, however, I do not believe that I live sustainably. The electricity that I use comes from dirty coal burning power plants, there are three computers in my household, there are two cell phones in my household, and I have a one and half year old daughter that requires nearly constant spending of some sort (this is rough because everything for children these days is crappy plastic made from melamine).
I live on a budget so I cannot make many more accommodations to the 'green movement.' I am wondering is true sustainability possible given the way we live and the way we were socialized? Now when I ask this question I am asking from an American perspective. After 200 years of material culture being driven into us, it seems unlikely that we will be able to shift our cultural paradigm during our generation, excepting, of course, the chance for environmental breakdown. I am relatively certain that it will take two or three generations before we can right the wrongs that we have been committing against the planet. But is this soon enough and can we really say that these small efforts we make are sustainable or they just closer to sustainability than we were a decade ago?
What are your views?
Views: 1
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Comment by Jerry Rae Leyland on March 9, 2010 at 3:16pm -
Hi there! I often wonder if I am doing enough with regards to living sustainably, and I honestly don't feel that I am.
Materialism is definitely a trend that more and more countries are adopting, but I feel that parents can definitely minimize the degree to which it affects their children. My parents didn't give much fuss about material objects and this rubbed off on me.
Thanks for your sincere post!
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Comment by John D. Boyden on March 9, 2010 at 11:39pm -
I don't believe you can be more than an example, if you truly try to live a "sustainable", ecological life. Truly it seems that would be a life that takes nothing from the earth without replacing it. How could you then use technology to communicate, How could you wirk to change the world through travel, groups, activity? Would growth-beyond intellectual-be possible? Economic growth?
I cannot see how! +1 Spark Maybe your essay will spark ideas!!
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Comment by Sean Michael Stimac on March 10, 2010 at 12:13am -
Thanks again, John. It is really tough, I try to not to be deluded in my thinking towards my own footprint. I think in many cases advocates of sustainability are deluded as to what sustainability would actually entail.
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Comment by Greg Stevenson on March 24, 2010 at 2:49am -
In the very long term nothing is sustainable. Conservation will not ultimately save the planet but may well delay it's destruction long enough for the human race, or what ever we have evolved into, to have developed technologies to allow us to get off it and relocate our world.
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Comment by Sean Michael Stimac on March 24, 2010 at 3:03am
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This is true, if we can be certain of anything it's that the universe is in a constant state of transformation. The human race, will in all likelihood, become extinct at some point in the future. This is true for all life forms. Down the road we're all goners, but the notion of sustainability is important and should be considered in a human context. We like being here, we like existing. Sustainability may be essentially impossible, but we should consider more thoroughly our footprint and how we can lessen it, that is if our desire to exist is strong enough. I'm hesitant to believe that we will be able to escape before we succ**b, but time will tell. While we're here, however, we should make the effort to make it worthwhile and fulfilling for as many people as possible.
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Comment by Danijela Scepanovic on April 1, 2010 at 5:28pm -
I would consider a more optimistic approach: the sustainability being our overall goal, something worth thinking about and going towards. It will probably never be reached in a full sense but its worth if it becomes underling principle of our existence.
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Comment by Iron Helix on April 1, 2010 at 5:43pm -
Sean, I concur with your conclusion about human extinction, which is why I have the belief that genetic engineering is the only hope of salvation for 'humanity'.
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Comment by Sean Michael Stimac on April 1, 2010 at 5:56pm
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@ Danijela I have no room in my life for optimism. I much prefer a pragmatic approach and one founded in logic and reality. I do agree, however, that we should strive towards sustainability, but it is important that we do not delude ourselves by believing that sustainability is achievable.
@ Iron Helix I do not believe that any human needs salvation - at all. There is nothing that we need to be saved from. We simply need to make better decisions and learn how to a****s consequences.
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Comment by Sean Michael Stimac on April 1, 2010 at 6:01pm
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It all essentially boils down to personal responsibility. We need to be cognizant of the effects our actions have and should be mindful of how we use the words 'save' and 'slavation.' There is an inescapable religious association with these words. We need to shed those dogmas and cease with the belief that there is a higher power capable/willing to bail us out of the horrors that civilization fosters.
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