Should We Save the Planet - Or Let It Go? It Seems Earth Inhabitants Lack the Mindset for Sustainability

Should We Save the Planet - Or Let It Go? It Seems Earth Inhabitants Lack the Mindset for Sustainability

hat has to change. After all, who wants to or could live on a barren planet? Who wants to be around when the consequences of unprecedented depletions of water, soil and other resources, when a 50 per cent growth in world population (approximately ten billion 2050) lead to predictable supply/demand imbalancesand famines, wars and other nearly unimaginable perturbations?

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has issued a report describing the nature and severity of the coming crisisif we do not act so as to save the planet from continued degradation. Entitled, "Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production: Priority Products and Materials," this document, unveiled on June 2 at the European Commission in Brussels, calls for "reforming, re-thinking and redesigning the energy and agriculture sectors." Nothing less, the report advises, will enable needed environmental, social and economic returns essential to sustainability.

UNEP bills itself as "the voice for the environment in the United Nations system." The report is a worldwide challenge. It is a call to world leaders and yes, wellness promoters, to muster earth's defenders. It is urgent to educate the masses to support global strategies that can sustain a decent quality of life for all species to make it through the 21st century.

The greatest challenges seem to be in the areas of population limits, fossil fuel usage and food supply. New ways must be found to feed the world with the least destructive environmental impacts. In part, this requires dramatic reductions in our present reliance on fossil fuels. Sustainability is not possible unless citizens of the developed societies lead the way with sacrifices that preserve the larger Commons.

Higher taxes as well as fiscal incentives to consume less are needed, as are investments to find innovations that can "decouple" economic growth from environmental damage.

The problems noted in the report will not surprise scientists and others already alarmed by climate change, energy limits and unsustainable consumption patterns. They know all too well that humans are:

* Draining freshwater supplies and ecosystems (e.g., forests).

* Increasing disease and death rates with toxic pollutants.

* Raising pollution to unsustainable levels.

* Feeding more than half of all world crops to farm animals, a practice that accounts for 70% of the global freshwater consumption, 38% of total land use, 19% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and 60% of the phosphorus and nitrogen pollution.

So, what can those of us do who very much wish to save the earth? Are these matters not beyond the influence of even the most dedicated environmentalist tree-huggers.

The authors of the UNEP report address that question head-on. They suggest that change and reform begin at the level of the householdwith family patterns of energy and food consumption. This means less use of our heating and cooling systems, fewer gadgets and appliances and less travel, especially in personal vehicles. The ways people travel do matter. Yes, we are talking change and pain, sacrifice and disciplineits not enough to just talk about saving the planet. Action is required. A big first step to begin now to shift diets from animal-based proteins towards vegetable-based foods, to use public transit systems, to run less residential heating and cooling systems, to buy fewer products made with plastics, iron, steel and aluminum. That's all part of step onewait till you get a load of the next ten steps!

Still want to save the earth? Maybe you'd rather see more tax dollars go into a search for economical ways to find another planet more hospitable to our present consumption? After all, who wants to make sacrifices if an easier way out can be found? Unfortunately, the authors do not mention any extraterrestrial environments readily accessible or out there on the proverbial horizon within our own solar system or one of the millions of billions extant in no fewer than 100 billion galaxies. It's save this earth or, to quote Johnny Depp playing undercover FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone in the movie "Donnie Brasco, "Forget about it."

By the way, natural resources are not all that seem "unsustainable" these days. Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned the U.S. Congress last week that this country's federal budget "appears to be on an unsustainable path," as well. And who has not read of the "unsustainable" economies of Greece, Iceland, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, England and doubtless other European countries? "Unsustainable" seems to be the word most characteristic of the future and, come to think of it, I'm no exception. At the rate at which I myself, despite a wellness lifestyle, have aged over seven decades, I personally appear to be unsustainable. Unless something is done to arrest the toll of my personal energy consumption, in another 50 years or so years I could be a physical wreckand not so hot in the mental realm, either.

But, let me get back down to earth hereafter all, this UNEP report wasn't about me.

The UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the body that produced the UNEP report summed things up nicely: "Decoupling growth from environmental degradation is the number one challenge facing governments in a world of rising numbers of people, rising incomes, rising consumption demands and the persistent challenge of poverty alleviation - thus setting priorities would seem prudent and sensible in order to fasttrack a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy." Well, maybe a little windy but it does seem to sum things up.

In any event, that's the situation. What shall we do about it? How can we muster support for a save the earth campaign? I think wellness promoters everywhere, whether functioning in companies orchestrating worksite wellness programs for employees or spa managers providing lifestyle educational opportunities or coaches in medical or fitness settings or even lowly bloggers, newsletter editors and website journalists should shift their focus to the big picture, whenever possible. Enough already on medical management, risk reduction, body fat and the minutiae of personal fitness. That's fine but none of that is the elephant in the roomlet's focus on REAL wellness. Let's get everyone thinking about how to think critically, why it matters to ponder the great existential mysteries of what its all about, how can we live fully and welland other such cosmic issues that motivate and inspire and make people receptive to appreciating and doing something brave about the kinds of challenges put forward by UNEP.

If wellness folks will do thator some of it, maybe in time, when the roll is called and the vote taken, people all over the planet will cast ballots for the planetwith their wallets and behavioral pattersand do it not only for themselves but for their children, grand and many degrees of great grandchildren. A century from now and beyond, humans might think better of us if we do so.

Not that I expect it but I'd love to be mistaken.

All the best. Go earth.

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