A New Prosperity

I make several trips a day from my room to clear the trash or deposit some recycling. Each time, I attempt to remove some of the wrappers, bags, and other non-recyclable materials from the blue bins and transport them to the trash--where I discover a mountain of used food containers, soda cans, and paper, all of which could have been recycled. I feel not unlike a hobo while digging through the garbage and sorting out its contents, and often have to tamper my urge to put things in their proper place while out in public, so as not appear distasteful. But I resent that I have to choose between helping to minimize waste and maintaining a public image--why cant people just get it right? Or, more importantly, why don't people care about their ecological impact?

Although the impending catastrophes associated with climate change have done much to raise awareness about the repercussions of human activities on the environment, the fact is that our society does not live sustainably and superficial and ancillary adjustments will do little to tamper the destruction. Even if we got all of the recycling right, bought only organic clothes, and switched all our lightbulbs to CFLs, it still would not be enough to "save the planet" because these gestures do not get to the heart of the problem: our society is built upon increasing consumption and economic growth.

Alex Steffen, author of "Planetary Boundaries and the Failure of Environmentalism," (http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010551.html) urges that, "If planetary boundaries mean anything, they mean it's time to stop pretending that 'greener' is good enough. We need pragmatic brilliance and transformation. Anything less is just cluttering the discussion."

Until our society abandons the long-held Industrial Age idea that the planet's capacity for material growth is infinite, and that the path to prosperity is to accumulate material wealth, we cannot make true progress in the name of sustainability. There is no room for lukewarm efforts--the physical limits of the planet's production deem that the resources for the maintenance of our lifestyle will run out. We must fundamentally change our ingrained habits--more than simply how we go about them--if the world's population is to support itself. "First-world" societies will have to redefine what prosperity is.

I am a hypocrite. I take to-go boxes of salad from the Marketplace on occasion, I'll still drink a Sprite. I recycle them, but I wish I could use a reusable container for all my meals and make my own soda (I actually saw such a device in one of those Skymall magazines--I plan to invest!) But further than this, I too need to consume less and change the way I live. Hopefully campus dining services will help lead the way in exemplifying that our culture needs to seek ways to minimize its environmental impact. Providing reusable containers and local, organic food are a great way to start. I hope, one day, such sustainable changes wont be a politically-laden choice, but a systematic part of our lives. Eventually, we shouldn't have to think about it.