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On Becoming Sustainable

I am in process of looking at writing a book or log, “The Sustainable Life,  a process of making the journey to sustainability.”  It is not necessary to publish this, but I hope it will be an accounting of trying to create as marginal impact in the lovely town of Hillsborough.  But really the goal is bigger.  How do we as people relearn to live sustainably.  Even Robert Reich, former secretary of Labor under President Clinton, is now on to this path. See test below from his blog, www.RobertReich.blogspot.com .

“… if Americans had the money to keep spending as before (the resession), they could do so forever. Yet only the most myopic adherent of free-market capitalism could believe this to be true. The social and environmental costs would soon overwhelm us. Even if climate change were not an imminent threat to the planet, the rest of the world will not allow American consumers to continue to use up a quarter of the planet’s natural resources and generate an even larger share of its toxic wastes and pollutants. This would be a problem if most of what we consumed during our big-spending years were bare necessities. But much was just stuff. And surely, there are limits to how many furnishings and appliances can be crammed into a home………..But most other Americans are now discovering they can exist surprisingly well buying fewer of the things they never really needed to begin with.

What we most lack, or are in danger of losing, are the things we use in common – clean air, clean water, public parks, good schools, and public transportation, as well as social safety nets to catch those of us who fall. Common goods like these don’t necessarily use up scarce resources; often, they conserve and protect them.”

We have a long way to go to change behavior of the consumer and the thought process and emotions that drive us.  But is has to change or we will face the consequences.

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