Oracle Online

Yet in my editorial on climate change I advocated some policy changes coupled with the usual uncontroversial and inconsequential half-measures, like recycling. Clearly our indoctrinated passivity is a hard thing to shake, since even I sometimes fall back on it.

Climate change is upon us. This is accepted by pretty much anyone who’s bothered to even glance at any of the scientific literature. It’s also pretty well-accepted that we’ve screwed up the planet in a host of other ways. Fish species are crashing globally due to overfishing. Pesticides and other synthetic chemical contaminants have been found on all continentsčyes, even Antarcticačand in human and animal populations far removed from places they have ever been used. America is using Africa, Asia, and Native American reservations as dumping grounds for toxic wastes. Honeybees, essential for pollination of many important food crops, are disappearing nationwide. The ozone layer is depleted, everything is polluted, and so on, ad nauseum. We all know this.

Yet the significance doesn’t seem to sink in. I certainly struggle to keep mindful of it. This is not something that recycling will fix. This is not something government regulation will fix, even if it were plausible that our government would actually do something.

Yet we all seem to feel that as long as we’re recycling or voting for certain candidates, then if things still get worse, well, that sucks but, we did what we could. Why should this be so?

The inconvenient truth is, it’s profitable to destroy the environment. When a forest gets cut down, when a factory pollutes, when pesticides and other toxic chemicals are used, the GDP goes up. When the seas are so overfished that fish stocks are depleted, the GDP still goes up. When we go to war to secure the resources of another nation, the GDP goes up. When someone gets diagnosed and treated for cancer, the GDP goes up.

Although it is a small step in the right direction, changing how we calculate the GDP will not solve this problem. Our economic system is based on destroying the planet, and our political system is built on our economic system. If we are to change this, we must first change ourselves. We must all radically rethink how we live and consume.

Everything we consume is produced somewhere. Everything that’s produced has to come from somewhere and has to go somewhere. This includes the often toxic and non-disposable byproducts of production. Scientists and inventors are brilliant at finding ways to incorporate those toxic wastes into other products and then sell them to us; however, this simply places one more step between where the products come from and where they end up.

All this does is further mystify the production process, making it even harder for consumers to know what we’re getting and where it came from. This also further insulates the producers from social responsibility for their products and by-products. What others don’t know can’t hurt you.

So what does this mean for us? We need to radically rethink our place on these commodity chains of resources, producers, and consumers. As much as possible, stop being consumers. Know where the products you buy come from and what will happen to them after you throw them away. If you can’t find out, don’t buy it. Every product we buy, every mile we drive in our cars, actually everything we do has an impact on the planet and on other people. We need to recognize this, and start incorporating this knowledge into the way we live our lives.