Orr’s onion: peeling layers of polluting purchases
Start with the silly stuff, says David Orr, if you’re looking to cut your consumption of fossil fuels, and you’ll find that a sustainable society is within reach.
Interviewed by Deborah Rich, Orr notes that “changes in our fossil energy consumption, and hence, carbon emissions, are not optional but mandatory” (via sfgate).
“Our choice is whether we organize the transition or let circumstance and nature do it for us. The former path permits cautious optimism; the latter would be catastrophic at a scale difficult to imagine”, says Orr.
Turns out, Orr sees four simple steps we can all take in a stepwise peeling off the layers of this onion.
Still, it would be a great help, says Orr, if government guaranteed annual increases in the price of fuels until prices reflect the fuels’ ecological costs.
Here are the four things, all starting with an “S”:
silly stuff (pet psychologists, botox, inefficiencies)
surplus (too much of what’s not good for us)
substitutes (stroll versus drive, community versus possessions)
sacrifice (for others in future)
“Giving up things that we truly need and desire in order that someone else today, or in the future, can live well “,says Orr, is “something our heroes of former generations often did.”
“This culture is hamstrung because we don’t recognize limits,” says Orr. “Ironically, if we refuse to recognize our limits, we will impose even greater limits on ourselves.”
Wot he said.
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