Resource Gluttony

I recently watched "An Inconvenient Truth". If you have not seen it yet, open up your heart and mind, and watch it for the sake of your children and grandchildren. We are altering Earth in ways like never before. It is as if we are conducting a vast uncontrolled planetary experiment. How fast can we increase the concentration of C02 in the atmosphere? What will be the consequences? Our last 150 years has been impressive and we need to stop. The choice is either begin living within the boundaries of ecological systems or face unimaginable consequences. We certainly have all the necessary technological and financial resources to choose a sustainable future. The question is whether we now have the collective will.

I remember in 1972, Donella Meadows warned in "Limits to Growth", that "if the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next 100 years." Only 20 years later, in "Beyond the Limits", she concluded "human use of many essential resources and generation of many kinds of pollutants have already surpassed rates that are physically sustainable." Now, after another 15 years, we are still heading in the wrong direction. Think of it this way. We are on a train speeding south towards an abyss. We may have made small progress over the past 35 years in slowing the train down but we are still heading south. Unfortunately, the closer we get to the abyss the sharper the turn has to be.

Our aversion to limits is further evidenced by a new Census document released last month. It found that thirty percent of Americans are obese, not just overweight, obese! Our houses are also getting bigger and bigger with the average now 2,227 square feet. We also drive the biggest cars with the worst fuel economy of any nation. And when was the last time you drove the speed limit?

I have this running argument with my newly licensed daughter. She complains that I drive too slowly. I tell her I drive the speed limit. I explain that the number on the sign is a maximum, not a minimum. She says no one else drives the speed limit. I encourage her to. I have not always. Most people admit they don't. We ignore speed limits just like we ignore nature's limits.