Where Are We Going to Find Five More Earths?

An "ecological footprint" is a measure of the amount of resources needed to sustain one person and absorb her/his wastes. In the United States, the ecological footprint of the average U.S. citizen is large compared to most other countries in the world. If everyone in the world lived like the average U.S. citizen, the global community would need six planets. While Costco sells many useful household items in large sizes, they don’t sell planets, in singles or in five-packs.

Our planet is a savings account. We are currently living off the interest and drawing down the principal. To be sustainable, we need to find a way to live off the interest; that is, use renewable resources and not use them up faster than they can replenish themselves.

Will the Great Transition to a Sustainable Future Be Painful?

Last summer, my family and I traveled to the Monteverde Cloud Forest, an isolated rainforest preserve in Costa Rica. The 30 kilometer unpaved road to Monteverde demanded slow driving to avoid sharp rocks, jack-knifed tractor trailers, large potholes, and mudslides. The ride was physically painful for our backs and gave us headaches. But after relaxing over night in one of the sustainable tourism hotels and touring the nature preserve, we knew the journey had been worth the trouble. We enjoyed the peace and robust beauty of the jungle the next day during a guided tour where we saw a two-toed sloth, a tarantula, hummingbirds, and the rare quetzal bird.

The drive to Monteverde is an apt metaphor for our society’s journey to a sustainable future: the trip may cause temporary, mild discomfort but the destination will meet our needs in new and exciting ways.

What will mild discomfort mean? Is it painful to reduce waste? There are so many examples in our society where we waste material resources. The broken irrigation sprinklers that flood the nearby street waste water. Uneaten prepared food that is thrown away wastes food. A freight ship idling at a port wastes petroleum and creates air pollution. None of these wastes add value in our society.

Then there are the larger systemic changes. Over the next generation, we need to redesign our societies to encourage smart growth, create closed-loop manufacturing systems, and transition to organic agriculture. These will all involve investments in our future that we need to make anyway.