We have spent so much time in class climbing the arch, with a great list of problems as the steps on our staircase. Looking down, to continue the metaphor, I feel a sense of acrophobia. The pile of problems is as towering as landfills are set to become in the coming years. It feels daunting to think about descending all of these steps. It is so much easier to just not look down. However, there have been times in history where this has been true and, led by some brave, vertigo-free few, mankind was able to overcome.
We mentioned such an occurrence in class. The civil rights movement is a rather recent period of American history and is a great example of a deeply engrained problem. This makes it a good comparison with the environmental issues we are facing. The separation of whites and blacks was thought of as natural before the civil rights movement. The thought was that it was fine for blacks to be mistreated for the sake of an ordered society. This fallacious logic is the same that permeates the thinking that keeps unsustainable development in place.
Humans are so concerned with the short term that it seems to be an inherent quality. Some environmental problems have already begun to affect us and still people are unresponsive. This shows how events taking place even within one’s lifetime may seem too distant to incite action. Most people perceive a trade-off between solving environmental problems and living comfortable lives. This seems logical at first because if there were a way to reconcile profits with sustainability, why would we have ignored it thus far? The answer is that many costs are hidden. I breathe in steel dust every day on the subway but I cannot quantify this the way I budget my spending on clothes and food. Landfills grow and the Earth heats up but, until doomsday, the price of shoe is more important.
It does not have to be this way. There are simple methods of reconciling human utility, in the sense of happiness, with environmental sustainability. Harnessing solar energy and closing the loop are the correct paths to move ahead along. By closing the loop we eliminate the idea that the Earth has resources to be processed and regurgitated as “waste”. Everything can be useful and by tapping into these mislabeled resources we can have access to so much more while consuming at a slower rate. Solar energy can help fuel this system, providing the energy needed to reverse chemical processes without using up terrestrial resources. There is essentially a floating battery in the sky that we are not even using.
I am now embarking on my final metaphor. The reason that these changes have been so slow is because there is a high activation energy in this reaction (to all the problems we have learned about). The immediate effects of closing the loop and investing heavily in solar power are diminishing profits for corporations and higher prices for consumers. Nash equilibrium keeps both parties from waning to pay the activation energy and move forward. So how can mankind be urged forward to a smarter existence? A catalyst is needed.
These can come in the form of government intervention or consumer awareness. The problem with government intervention is similar to the problem with it during the civil rights movement. No amount of legislation was powerful enough on its own to desegregate America. There had to be a shift in attitude by a nation. Consumer awareness can be spread by legislation. Creating taxes based on environmental impact would monetize the costs of unsustainable behavior. However, because of globalization and a competing worldwide economy, such taxes would have to be implemented across the globe all at once. This is certainly possible but unprecedented.
