Walking up the trail to my lookout tower last night, I saw the new moon emerge from a shoal of clouds and hang for a time beyond the black silhouette of a shaggy, giant Douglas fir. I stopped to look. And what I saw was the moon-the moon itself, nothing else; and the tree, alive and conscious in its own spiral of time; and my hands, palms upward, raised toward the sky. We were there. We are. That is what we know. This is all we can know. And each such moment holds all that we could possibly need-if only we can see. --Edward Abbey, Abbey's Road
To live sustainably upon our Earth we must be able to see and understand the destruction that we are creating. We must think in the present, yet consider the future generations. What is it we are leaving our grandchildren? Will it be raped hills and unclean water, or will it be protected wilderness and breathable air? The answer is inside each and every one of us. All of our actions have an impact. All of our deeds do matter. Whether it is turning off the faucet while brushing our teeth or preserving a million acres of forest-it matters. Conservation comes in small and large packages, and each package tells the story of the future. It's up to us what the story will tell.
I've learned many positive stories of conservation from my professors and colleagues in life. I've also realized the amount of work that still needs to be done. I've begun to understand the magnitude of resource depletion that is fueled by our consumer society. "More is better," we are taught from a young age. "I need this and I need that." But do we? How much is enough? I struggle with this question daily. I want many things that will make my life comfortable, but what cost am I willing to pay in resource depletion and human exploitation? The moral dilemma of each purchase I make is overwhelming: where was it made, what is it made with, where did the resource come from (old growth forest, a mine that pollutes a river and ground water), and the list goes on. Many products that are cheaper in monetary value are more costly in environmental value. The true cost of each item we purchase is not on the price tag but becomes evident in Earthly scars and filthy working conditions.
So what can we do? Reduce our consumption habits for one. More is not better in my view. Shall I build sheds to store things I will never use? At what point is our desire to own and possess satisfactory? I ask this question of myself, as well as of the whole of society. A reality is that I will continue to consume and purchase goods and services, but I can be a conscious consumer and make informed decisions about all of my purchases. By looking for products made from recycled materials, sustainably harvested crops and forests, and from ethical companies who promote sound environmental decisions and don't exploit their employees, I can and will make a difference. By purchasing these products I am sending a message to the industrial world that, as a consumer, I support practices and companies that have a conscience.
Economics then tell the companies who are polluting, pillaging, and exploiting, that if they do not change their behaviors they will go out of business. Obviously, it will take more than myself to change the mind of these multi-national corporations, but together, one individual at a time, a critical mass will provide the sufficient support that is needed for the message to get across. It's a free country; exercising my right to make environmentally responsible decisions is my choice. Thinking for myself, instead of allowing crafty television advertisements to think for me, is my privilege and my power to go against the monetary and political power of these corporations.
To live a sustainable lifestyle is to live in harmony, or agreement with the Earth-a lofty goal in this day and age. But with more conservation and environmental education, it becomes a realistic one. As Aldo Leopold says, "The problem, then, is how to bring about a striving for harmony with land among a people, many of whom have forgotten there is any such thing as land, among whom education and culture have become almost synonymous with landlessness. This is the problem of 'conservation education'" (A Sand County Almanac, 210). For this very reason I have chosen a path as an environmental leader. To educate the young and old-and for them to educate me-about the connections we have with our surroundings, and to think in a systems view of interconnection and webs.
To know my neighbor-the tree, the bird, the rock, the human-is to know myself. "Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself?"-Henry David Thoreau. Within these connections we can see ourselves. If we pollute our drinking water, we become sick. If we cut down all the trees, our oxygen becomes less. If we do not respect the Earth, she will not respect us, and then can we respect ourselves? I am connected to all life. I cannot separate myself from who I am and what surrounds me.
In order for us to recognize the connections within all life, we must begin to open our eyes to see the restrictions of our freedom. Recognizing the reality of our constant consumption and the ways corporations and the media dictate our lives can be overwhelming. At times I find myself struggling through the current of consumption, swimming for the dock, but the waves blind me and turn me off course, tiring me from the hard swim. I need an island to rest upon. A telescope to see the dock. The dock becomes the destination, but what is it that lies beyond: desert, mountains, paradise, wasteland? I don't know, and maybe I'll never reach the dock, and maybe it's better not to see where it is and what lies beyond. Maybe the swim is the journey. Maybe the journey is to learn how to live in harmony with the Earth again.
If this is the case, then the challenge is how to live in harmony in our technological society. We cannot go back to hunter and gatherer times but must go forward and find new ways to accomplish the task. Demonizing corporations that pollute and the loggers who fell the trees will not solve the challenge. Working together as a human race, learning wisdom from each other's cultures and ways of life, and accepting the challenge is how sustainable progress will be made. Conserving the last tracts of wilderness that are left and learning what these unspoiled lands have to teach us will also benefit the cause.
Nature herself can be the ultimate teacher, but without the effort of her inhabitants to live in harmony with the Earth and all life, who knows what type of environment seven generations from now will have to live in. We will provide the answer with our actions today; let's make it a beautiful one for tomorrow.