I wonder if the rapid development of the resources of a nation leads to the equally rapid decline of the resourcefulness of its people. For instance, relying so heavily on outside sources of entertainment we have become almost incapable of entertaining ourselves. How many parents face the daily question of their young children, “Gee, what is there to do anyway?” How many of us, for that matter, can even share an evening with family without resorting to the electronic entertainment wedged into nearly every North American home?
Nowhere is our lack of inner resourcefulness as apparent as in the exhaustive land-wrecking we condone—hidden beneath the ambiguous term “development”—for the sake of keeping an ephemeral, materialistic “progress” on its feet. Whereas the natural world is a mixed, self-sustaining enterprise, our form of development is unilateral and provokes ruination of nature for the sake of extracting dollars. It is further indicated by the irresponsible attitude humanity has exhibited in destroying rivers with filth, mocking the beauty of landscapes with litter and garbage and accumulating goods in an insatiable urge to clutter dwelling places with material objects. Strange to say, but when a person destroys the work of man we call him a vandal. When he destroys the work of God we call him a developer.
The present economic crisis has led us to justify the sanctioning of huge oil pipe lines through vast tracks of unspoiled wilderness. Since we lack both the character and wisdom to moderate own demands on the environment, we unconcernedly plan to subject our country to further despoliation for that which will provide propulsive power. Though most of us have nowhere of importance to go—we should realize by now that we cannot escape from ourselves—the final irony may be that we will travel onward to the last gasp and drive our nation to the poorhouse in an automobile.
Basic to our increasing lack of resourcefulness is the fundamental mythology we have come to accept: man is more important than the Earth itself. The rise of humankind may have been a flowering of the Earth, but humankind has sickened the planet to the point where it may no longer be capable of sustaining that flower. Nature’s experiment with an intelligent being may have been a failure. The efficient operation of the environment depends upon the sunshine-trapping green plants and the microorganisms that decompose organic material. The passage of man along the extinction trail, then, would be marked by a greener, lush Earth. Like Adam in the Garden of Eden, we are ignoring our role “to dress and keep the Earth.”
Instead of using our resourceful, technological expertise for the continued health of man and the planet, we have become captives of our machines. We have been lulled into a state of mind unable to distinguish between luxury and necessity. We are blinded to the simple truth that clean, fresh water is a basic necessity to life. We have decided that labour-saving gadgets are a necessity, though they sacrifice clean water, now an externality. We truly have things backward.
Every day we let pass without moving toward restoration of harmony with the Earth moves us that much closer to the point of no return. But there is little permitted other than words such as these. Society prefers the glibness of the advertiser who blesses their desires. It is the ultimate irony that a conservationist is considered a radical. We have no time to listen to anything that smacks of conscience and if we listen there is still a gap between hearing and acting. All that we have now is a “permitted lip-service” which is used to prove we live in a democracy. Sadly, there is no abatement of demand on resources; no abatement of the philosophy that we need to be over-warmed, over-entertained and over-coddled by the environment. It is evident of short-term thinking that neither individuals nor industries nor institutions have recognized a moral responsibility to the natural world.
Yet we say we are concerned with the future of our children. What future?