04/22/2020
With the 50 year anniversary of Earth Day this year, perhaps it is appropriate that we will all be celebrating it mostly indoors and away from other people.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many places, worldwide, are in various stages of communal quarantine.
The idea is that if folks are required to keep a distance from other people, the spread of this terrible disease can be minimized, and lives saved.
Another benefit of this unique time is that there is a tremendous reduction in the use of transportation, especially airlines, public transport, and automobiles.
A headline appeared that the air quality in Los Angeles, in April 2020, is the best of any major city! Can you imagine!
Another positive outcome of this pandemic is our civilization is able to wake-up and put in perspective items which had previously been taken for granted.
Take the recent rash of new laws that mandated the ban of plastic bags, and required a charge for bags at markets.
The goal of these laws was of course noble, to reduce this waste-stream, and folks who carried in their own reusable bags had become common to see.
However, the negative of this practice is that the food distribution system we had before had a nice separation from outside contamination.
The progressive new laws that banned plastic bags gave zero value to that separation. It encouraged people to bring in their own reused bags, potentially with its germs, into the markets.
This pandemic has made us aware that there are multiple values that actually are important to us, and to our community.
One of the traditional weaknesses of the ‘sustainability’ movement is it often exaggerates itself as being the most important thing, so it can solve the biggest ‘existential threat’ to the world (i.e. climate change).
This myopic view has been one of the reasons there is a strong undercurrent of ‘non-believers’, since some folks see that there are a number of big issues in this world, and looking at them realistically may be the right thing to do.
Rogue nations posturing for nuclear weapons, boasting of destroying peoples and countries, is just one example.
Rogue nations using disease, or electric disruption, as weapons are other legitimate concerns.
We should recognize that there are a ‘bundle of values’ which we can work on, together.
We can bring everyone into understanding that we can steer toward a renewable energy future, while we also address other huge issues.
For example, if the weaponized electric pulse renders electrical systems and batteries unworkable, shouldn’t we take this into account as we plan our renewable energy future?
Is it the right thing for us to do to make virtually everything run electronically… to include opening your doors, knowing this?
On this Earth Day we have much to celebrate.
Clearly the Earth is celebrating this unique time, as the carbon footprint at this time has been dramatically attenuated.
Perhaps more importantly we have learned that we can grow up a little bit and realize we can recognize and value other ideas, and to give weight to these values.
By recognizing there are several really important things we need to focus on, we can actually help unite our society.
Reducing carbon based pollution is one thing, but there is also disease, electric weaponization, nuclear weapons race, hatred, starvation….
These, too, must be front and center in our minds.
Instead of arguing over which is the single biggest problem, perhaps we should ask, let’s agree on these high priority concerns and now we can discuss solutions that address all of them.
Just this process will help to reduce one major problem, that of hatred.
The partisan hatred, as just one form that we are all now experiencing, is not sustainable.
Let us broaden our understanding of ‘sustainability’ and realize it is also about ‘us’, and how we get along with ‘them’.
This is our opportunity to invite more folks to stand with us, and we do that by giving others a voice and having us stand with them.
