Page 24 - Spring2008

THE SUM IS GREATER THAN ITS PARTS

Whether or not the planet is warming up or cooling down, the fact is that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are at
an all-time high and, with the growth of the middle class in China and India, demands for limited resources are rapidly
increasing. In addition, the world’s population is experiencing an increasing sense of restlessness as the paradigms of cor-
porate control and industrial agriculture reveal their inherent limitations and dangers. Many commentators have predicted
not so much a global change in climate as a global change in consciousness.
It has been suggested that the age we live in now be called the “Anthropocene,” indicating that as the dominant
species, we humans are capable of changing the planet on a geological scale. It is interesting to note that already in the
early 1900s, Vladimir Vernadsky, a Russian geochemist, coined the term “noosphere” to indicate a new era, which he
believed the earth was entering. Vernadsky believed that the noosphere, or sphere of human thought, was the third stage
of planetary development following the biosphere (biological life) which in turn had transformed the geosphere (inanimate
matter). “Just as the emergence of life fundamentally transformed the geosphere, the emergence of human cognition fun-
damentally transformed the biosphere. In this theory, the principles of both life and cognition are the essential features of
the earth’s evolution, and must have been implicit in the earth all along.” Vernadsky’s concept of the noosphere was one
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of optimism, in which a transhuman consciousness would emerge from the interaction of human minds. The visionary
concepts of Vernadsky were not popular in the West, but may be worth reconsidering today. After all, we ourselves are
our only real shot at staving off ecological disaster.
A February 2, 2008 New York Times article related a story about Ireland’s tax on plastic bags and the remarkable
aftermath. In 2002, in an effort to rise above the sea of discarded plastic bags in that country, Ireland passed a law taxing
the bags at 33 cents each. “There was an advertising awareness campaign,” the article continues, “and then something
happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts.” In a matter of weeks, national use of plastic bags dropped by 94
percent, and today just about everyone uses cloth shopping bags. Using plastic bags became socially unacceptable almost
overnight, “on a par of not cleaning up after one’s dog.”
This sort of mass change in behavior can be viewed as interrupting “business as usual,” and it will require many such
interruptions on small and large scale to add up to a real difference. From the point of ethics, however, and wanting to
see our children alive on a hospitable planet, how can we but do otherwise?
There are many opportunities to positively alter “business as usual” in our daily lives. It has been estimated that every
single American generates 12,000 pounds of carbon a year, 39 percent of that from electricity production, 32 percent
from transportation. We are conditioned by, and often blind to, our habits and comfort—business as usual—but we know
these can be changed. Here are just a few routine behaviors that can be significantly improved with new habits:

• Reduce by half the number of trips you take by car. Take note of how many times you find yourself in your car each
day. Let that number sober you up, and then act: consolidate errands, postpone or cancel non-essential trips, com-
mute with others in one vehicle, walk, take public transport, and so on. According to the experts, living close to work
so that you can walk or take public transport is the number one way to reduce your energy usage.
• Dry your clothes outside or hang indoors. The clothes dryer is a colossal waste of energy and is hard on clothes, which
we tend to wash too frequently anyway. Erecting a clothes line is very simple, and the sun and wind do a beautiful
job of drying, disinfecting and whitening laundry. You can also hang clothes outside to dry in the winter—winter air is
very low in humidity and clothes dry outside even if they take longer. Damp laundry hung inside in winter helps raise
indoor humidity. Hanging clothes to dry also obviates all those collateral laundry “aids” made from petroleum products
and toxic, endocrine-disrupting, disgusting fragrances. You don’t need any of them!
• Opt out of the commercial, industrial food system. Spend your food dollars with the farmers and producers in your
locale who grow most of what you eat. Especially support grass farmers! Choose to eat seasonally, learn to put food by
as it comes in season, make or grow as much of your own food as you can. If enough of us take the lead, it will soon
become as politically incorrect to consume supermarket food as it is to use plastic bags!
• “There is no bad weather, just bad clothing,” goes an old saying, and it’s worth taking to heart. We can heat our homes
more economically even if we can’t afford to install thermal windows or extra insulation by insulating ourselves in layers.
Many layers! Try a thin silk undershirt, then a cotton shirt or blouse, then a wool sweater. You may not even need to
turn on the heat. Most homes and businesses are overheated, which is enervating and unhealthy. It’s especially healthy
to breathe cool air at night when we sleep—so turn down the thermostat and wear a cap and socks to bed! In sum-
mer, resist using air conditioning as long as possible—install awnings or reflective window shades to deflect the sun.
And be sure to make your house temperature friendly. It’s not necessary to install expensive double glazed windows.
A tube of caulk pays for itself in energy savings as soon as it is applied; and curtains and blinds can be opened and
closed according to the weather and position of the sun. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Vernadsky

24 Wise Traditions SPRING 2008