Page 12 - ECOlogic Book

The first recommendation of the Michigan Council on Environmental Quality
is that of environmentally sustainable development, based on the premise
that a vigorous economy and a healthy environment are interdependent. It
states, “Economic development can no longer occur at the expense of non-
renewable resources, but must maintain the resource base to preserve the
opportunity both for a continued healthy economy and a healthy
environment.”

National priorities will have to reflect this new way of thinking as well.
Alternative energy research funding that was slashed by 90% in the Reagan
years will need to be a chief beneficiary of the “Peace” dividend. American
renewable energy firms have already been outdistanced by heavily funded
producers in Europe and Japan who are now likely to be the world leaders in
these technologies.

Will withdrawal from our addiction to fossil fuels and over-consumption be
difficult? Yes. Will it be impossible? No. As McKibbon says, “If it took 10,000
years to get where we are, it will take a few generations to climb back down.
But this could be the epoch when people decide at least to go no further
4
down the path we’ve been following . . .”

There’s so much we know how to do. What we must now learn is how not to
do many of those things. We know how to set off a nuclear holocaust. Do
we have the wisdom not to? We know how to consume and how to throw
away disposables. Do we know enough to take only what we need? We
know how to keep increasing the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Do we know how to stop increasing those levels? Can we limit ourselves
voluntarily, or must we be dragged, kicking and screaming into the
ecological age?

There is an astonishing thing of the inside cover of the July/Aug., 1990 issue
of the Utne Reader. It’s a two-page ad by Esprit which states, among other
things, “It could be you’ll buy more or less from us, but only what you need.
We’ll be happy to adjust our business up or down accordingly, because we’ll
feel we are then contributing to a healthier attitude about consumption. We
know this is heresy in a growth economy, but frankly, if this kind of thinking
doesn’t catch on quickly, we, like a plague of locusts, will devour all that’s
left of the planet. We could make the decision to reduce our consumption,
or the decision will soon be made for us . . . By changing the things that

4 Ibid, p. 213.

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