Living on Our One Earth
Welcome! This is the debut of a monthly information and opinion column about our relationship with the Earth. Content will include a wide variety of issues that affect the Earth and its denizens: what we think we know (the science and data), what we should pay attention to (the historical record), and why this all matters (the philosophical and moral consequences.) We are all dependents of this planet– each of us part of an elaborate, interconnected, ever-evolving system. How can we not feel hopeless at times, or worse, simply become numb to what seems like the inevitable downward spiral of a world in decay? Daily news of accelerating climate collapse and its effects can be depressing; species extinctions, health consequences of pollution, endless war with its waste of life and dwindling resources, and on and on. Let’s first try to understand how we got here and what we can actually do to assist our one, limited Earth. It’s more complicated than you probably think it is and requires more than lugging recyclables to the proper bin. Yes, we can help. All of us. Together.
The words we choose can transform ideas into action, for good or bad, sometimes unintentionally, and often as tools of propaganda. The term “climate change” (née “global warming”) suggests a gradual, even natural and unavoidable transformation without addressing the gravity of its long-term effects. We’re sometimes coached that ‘change is good,’ a sense that whatever is present can be improved upon if we try something else. People can change their mind, change direction, change their appearance, and the verb seems almost hopeful. Perhaps then, climate change should more rightly be called climate abuse. Abuse–defined as ‘harmful, injurious, improper, or excessive’ use of something or someone–seems a more accurate description of humankind’s ongoing relationship with Nature. Consider especially the words we use to describe the natural world and how we use the things we take. Resources, assets, commodities, materials, and goods are mined, extracted, processed, and inventoried.
We usually feel better knowing that something we’ve used hasn’t been wasted. What gets recycled, though? And does this actually result in less harm to the planet? We are told that being a conscientious citizen means that we recycle our waste products, though plastic ‘recycling’ is not (at least at this time) possible. In reality, we can re-use very few plastic types, and only for a limited number of times. The vast majority of plastics in circulation or being produced continue to accumulate in the environment and, we now know, in our bodies. We have little idea what harm plastics do in the long term, and no way to deal with the current burden we have created. Yet current production is increasing at a meteoric rate.
Paper product manufacturers display “FSC-certified” on labels to assure us that what we are buying came from “well-managed forests”. Managed by and for whom? Do we really believe it is OK that trees that have taken decades (or in some cases hundreds of years) to grow are felled and processed into paper within hours so we can wipe our rear ends, then flush the evidence away? “But these trees are replanted,” we tell ourselves. Tree replanting results in neat rows of same-species trees with no hint of all the living things that once populated the stripped areas; they are turned into farms, not forests.
I will use the term “gatherer-hunters” when referring to nomadic, forager people. It describes more accurately our early ancestors and how they interacted with their environment. The current common use of “hunter-gatherers” is the result of a man-centric, cultural bias. I will also capitalize the word “nature” when referring to the integrated whole of living things.
How we choose to describe humans and other beings reflects our understanding of them, and ultimately our opinions about our own relationship with them.
Gatherer-hunters had to pay close attention to the world around them. They recognized signs that
an area would provide adequate food and shelter by understanding how plants, animals, weather,
and even geological features were related and interacted. They lived with the land, not on the land.
Tribe members cooperated and shared many tasks for the good of the group as a whole. Though
roles between the sexes were often assigned for practicality, they were not as rigid or restrictive as
stationary peoples since egalitarianism was necessary for the survival of foragers. Everyone’s help
was valued equally, and decision making was done as a group.
If an area had diminishing resources or was hit by a natural disaster, mobile groups could pick up and move to better surroundings. Their possessions were few and living quarters were mostly portable. There were no animals or crops to tend to. The long-term ecological damage of these smaller groups was limited. Because they didn’t have the same devastating effects on plant and animal populations as large, permanent settlements did, Nature could recover more quickly. (However, the impact and extinction of large megafauna by more technologically advanced and growing populations of nomads is still being debated.) Fights over territories were limited. In conflicts with stronger invading tribes, moving on to another area was usually less costly than waging long-term destructive battles over resources.
Belief in animism and the interconnectivism of Nature shaped a culture that viewed humans as an integral part of Nature, not as servants in a hierarchy of separate powerful entities and gods to be worshipped or obeyed. Survival depended on cooperation and not competition with one another. To gatherer-hunters, Nature was a respected and honored partner.
But as humans began staying in one place as a group, they were able to bend and shape Nature, improve and increase accessible food stores, and selectively domesticate and breed animals to fit their needs. Plants were cultivated for traits that benefitted humans. As with any system or organism, larger size requires more complex organization and division of tasks. The same principle applied to agrarian societies. Land was divided, worked, and possessed. Work, and production could be managed by a social hierarchy whose ruling members decided they were entitled to a larger share. These leaders exerted control with belief cults that demonstrated their importance by claiming divine powers and the ability to communicate with gods that possessed all the same traits as their worshippers: jealousy, anger, and revenge tempered by benevolence that could be coaxed with offerings or sacrifices. A priest or leader figure could ‘talk’ to the gods and offer up explanations to citizens about natural disasters or crop failure, then blame the behavior of citizens if, despite offerings, something went wrong. (i.e., the gods want more offerings because some amongst them were secretly doing evil). Ritualized worship with complex rules and requirements was in sharp contrast to the more flexible beliefs of gatherer-hunters. In agrarian societies, men now spent a lot of time, labor and lives warring over land, resources and power. Like the animals and plants bred to be more tractable than their wild ancestors, women were seen in these agrarian societies as less capable beings who were easily managed because of their physical limitations–smaller, weaker and constrained by the care of children. Agrarian societies viewed Nature as a hostile force to be tamed and conquered for use by humans.
Françoise d’Eaubonne first used the word ecofeminism in her 1974 book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (Feminism or Death) as evolving feminist thinkers were considering gender in the relationship between humankind and Nature, and specifically, control over women and Nature by dominant men who viewed both as property. Ecofeminism has evolved and branched out over time to include questions about class, socioeconomics, etc. For the purpose of understanding the unfolding crisis, ecofeminism will help explain why our understanding of Nature and ecosystems needs to change if we hope to save ourselves and other inhabitants, both human and non-human, on a planet with finite survival necessities.
I’ll end with a personal story. When I was a small child, I was puzzled by my grandmother’s habit of rinsing out thin plastic produce bags and placing them over the dish rack to dry. These bags would be used again during shopping trips.
I once asked her, “Why don’t you just throw those away since they’ll give you new ones at the store when you shop again?”
She looked at me with a serious expression, then asked me a question in return.
“Where do you think all this comes from, and where do you think it will all go when I throw it away? There is only so much stuff on this earth and once it is taken to the dump it will never go back to where it belongs.”
Be thoughtful in what you choose to consume.
From the mountains of New Mexico,
Aabijibatoo Borba
Suggested reading, available in print and audio formats:
Plastic Inc by Beth Gardiner
A People’s History of the World: From the Stone Age to the New Millenium by Chris Harman
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