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.
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Here's my beef with all this talk of saving the environment. I don't like how its framed up. Have you noticed how most things today have a negative spin? And have you noticed most PEOPLE are negative? No surprise I guess, but its wearing me out and I personally am sick of watching the news, reading it online or even reading most magazines. Articles, news stories and advertisements are negative and based on fear, but why? Because fear sells.
I don't know about the rest of you, but hearing that we are all going to die horrible deaths either by weather, pollution or some unpronounceable disease because of the damage we are doing to the earth doesn't make me want to run out and do something about it. It just makes me lie in bed at night and fear what 'could' happen. So I get no sleep and then I wake up exhausted, eat a breakfast with fruit that has a dozen unknown chemicals sprayed on it, I get in my car and sit in traffic breathing in another set of chemicals, only to get to work and be exposed to more chemicals from my computer systems and the furnishings, decor and general building materials I am surrounded by. Makes a person want to go by a gun and end it. You feel trapped and helpless.
All the talk of global warming, mass destruction from unruly weather and daily news chatter about gas prices and disease make it overwhelming. What we really need is a positive spin, a light at the end of the tunnel, a treasure map if you will, of what we can do that is simple and can make a difference. I don't want to feel guilty if I buy Crest toothpaste or the wrong orange juice. I want to be flooded with ideas of how to make things better overall.
If I plant trees to memorialize someone who has passed on. If I donate my old laptop to orphans or the homeless in order to keep my old junk out of the landfills. If I could have suggestions like this that make ME feel good and the by product is that I am doing the environment good, THAT will make me respond. Its like wrapping your dog's medicine in cheese or peanut butter. All the dog sees is "yummy!". He doesn't know there is something that will benefit him in there, he just sees the yummy and he will happily eat it! We need to find ways to INSPIRE people, not beat them down and remind us that we are terrible, horrible, selfish humans!
Reframe the message so we can once again feel good about ourselves. Telling people catastrophic hurricanes were caused by global warming makes us feel like we are all murderers. Because NO ONE is exempt from damaging the environment. So then people think "Well, I'll just throw my cigarette butt down because I already killed hundreds of people by the car I drive, the groceries I buy, the trash I throw out, so what's one little butt going to do?"
People need to get involved and get a bit of the 'do good' bug. They need to connect with neighbors and strangers. They need to know that we ALL matter and that we all want the same things. We need more of a sense of community, gathering and sharing with one another. When you know the people around you, you are less likely to do things that could harm you and them. Its a ripple effect and someone needs to drop a pebble in somewhere and start a revolution.
All this negativity is only doing one thing.....creating more negativity. There's the old saying "What you focus on, expands." We need to focus on the positive and how doing things for others makes us feel better. And the other key thing is that "your perception of a situation is your choice". So if we can all start looking at the good in all this, we will feel better, sleep well and hopefully raise the next generation to think in a positive way from the start and look for solutions instead of just looking to point a finger. Stop the fear.
I don't want to know what I am doing wrong, I want to know how to do it right. Alright then....who has a pebble?
Well said. Who doesn't want their medicine in a slice of cheese?
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