MAY 7, 2019 – We hear and read regularly that we’re slip-sliding into ever deeper ecological do-do. The latest cause for alarm: a U.N. report on the imminent disappearance of a million species.
I count myself (smugly) among the 63% of Americans who accept what’s believed by 97% of actively publishing climatologists: human activity threatens life as we know it.
What to do?
Many of us “63 Percenters” are doing our part—we convince ourselves. We stand up and bark and . . . recycle. But we do more. We hurl invective at fossil fuel industries and their lobbyists, mining companies and their lobbyists, loggers, poachers, plastics people, the factory fishing fleets, and well, okay, while we’re at it . . . Republicans, and just for good measure, The Guy whose name I’m not going to mention.
Fine. Except . . .
None of the foregoing evil-doers would be doing nearly as much evil if consumers didn’t consume as voraciously as they do.
I mean, “as we do.” When I look at my own consumption habits and those of my lefty friends, I see that what separates us “liberals” from Republicans is . . . not much. Sure, a lefty is less likely than a Rep to drive a gas-guzzling SUV and more likely than a Rightwinger to paddle a canoe. But we “libs” are no less likely than Republicans to own a smartphone, use an iPad, work on a computer, buy packaged food, and fly on airplanes.
And can we have a show of hands of liberals who still drink milk and eat meat? (Mine is going up.)
In short, irrespective of our politics, our environmental consciousness and our environmental conscientiousness, if we buy stuff, eat food, use a phone or computer, and travel, we’re consumers, and consumers are what keep the “Republicans” in business.
Sure, we can make a concerted effort to recycle paper, turn lights off, eat vegan and walk to work, but one trip on a plane from MSP to LA and back to visit that liberal friend/relative, and on a per passenger basis, each of us has contributed to the earth’s atmosphere well over 700 pounds of carbon dioxide, depending on the fuel-efficiency of the aircraft we fly. (How many of the 2.6 million daily commercial passengers in the U.S.—surely including a lot of Democrats applauding the Green New Deal—give a thought about this?)
The problem is like smoking or drinking—one more cigarette isn’t going to cause cancer any more than one more drink i0s going to lead to cirrhosis. Similarly, that drive to the store for a gallon of milk won’t cause a die-off of polar bears two thousand miles from your house in Miami any more than the overnight recharging of a smartphone is going to inundate coastal cities a long plane ride from my house in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. But multiply millions of Americans driving a mile to stock up on milk from methane-producing cows and millions more Americans charging their cadmium-battery cell phones and . . . within a few short decades, de minimis becomes “deep do-do.”
© 2019 Eric Nilsson
