A New Mantra
Written on 11/20 at 10:16 PM by Andy Posner
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Filed under: environment philosophy
A New Mantra For a long time now one of the defining mantras of the environmental movement has been "Reduce. Reuse. Recycle." It's the kind of simple message--wrapped in alliteration--that makes for fantastic bumper sticker reading. Unfortunately, it's also the kind of message that utterly fails to inspire anything other than guilt and limitations, a fact clearly demonstrated by unabashedly rising rates of consumption in the U.S. and around the world despite decades of pleas for consumer self-abnegation. And regardless of what one thinks of our American bumper sticker culture, the fact remains that the "Three R's" of environmentalism are representative of a much broader message: that in order to reconcile humans with nature, humans must restrict themselves while engaging in several select token activities, such as recycling, changing light bulbs, or buying hybrid cars. Yet these activities are just that: token. They can not begin to scratch the surface of global climate, poverty, water, waste, toxic materials, health and deforestation issues. All this is not to say that we should not do what we can in our personal lives to affect change; rather, it means that we need a new, inspiring message, one that presents global problems as opportunities, galvanizes people to action, and unleashes human potential and creativity. Oh, and it just so happens that the new message is simple, wrapped in alliteration, and fits on a bumper sticker too: Invent. Invest. Implement.
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