A respectful attitude toward sustainability of the planet's stores is a concept central to holistic perception. Considering the results of every act through seven generations is often cited as a Native American tradition. The goal is to maintain a vigorous balance so that the resource is always available for the welfare of all beings.
A Sensible Concept
How can we speak of maintaining the health of a plant we intend to use? One possibility is to employ only part of it, as in harvesting fruit. Long-term ramifications suggest that if the plant is to be harvested whole, save the seed or allow a large enough patch to continue its life cycle so it may propagate and replenish itself in a timely way.
The reason for not applying such a simple concept rests on another aspect of human-ness – who will benefit from the resource? There have been cultures that do not recognize personal ownership of nature. Such a perception intimates again the respect given to the natural gifts of the earth. Ownership of land opens a Pandora’s box of issues regarding the management and destruction of natural resources in a way that simply was not an issue in times of smaller population and nomadic living.
Learning to Share
Living in a very different culture, we are in the process of needing to reacquaint ourselves with the ancient sensibility. We see the need to redistribute natural wealth for the sake of all life on the planet. Human behavior is causing such destruction that even ‘owners’ stand to lose everything if humanity doesn’t improve its attentiveness.
Those who profit most from ownership have the most to lose. Also, it is not easy to give up what is expected. However, human problems are not limited to issues of quantity and ownership. In order to make intelligent choices of how to apply limited resources, humans must come to a better understanding of human psychology. What items do which people actually need? Who benefits from what?
In New World New Mind, (free download available) authors Robert Ornstein and Paul Ehrlich, describe how the brain is hardwired to respond to dramatic rather than to small changes. They explain how the way we adapt to change has made us complacent. “Today’s situation is unprecedented…. At no previous time have people had the capacity to destroy their civilization in a few hours and to ruin much of the planet’s life-support systems in the process. And never before has a species been engaged, as are we, in the process of destroying those systems wholesale in a “gradual” manner that could complete the job in less than a century.”
Support Innovation
For too long we have operated on the philosophy that there are always more resources to be discovered. No need to be cautious or stingy. Now, we talk of mining the moon or other planets rather than change our thinking. Yet there are resources we have barely explored, such as the sun and wind. Creative recycling experiments have been made and can be developed–burning tires to fire pottery, produce energy, or sanitize landfill; green houses with plants that extract heavy metals and other pollutants from the water; earthquake proof buildings made from snake-like bags filled with rubble and cement, coiled like prehistoric pottery.
During the Second World War, everyone was enlisted to help collect metal, grow food, and make do with rationing. Can civilization put the same determination to create a wholesome environment for everyone’s benefit?
