The name of the game: sustainability

Grits and Greens

By: Christopher Vincent

Posted: 8/22/07

In the world in general, words are bandied about and some are repeated so often they bounce around in my head until it rings like an empty tin pan. Some words become codes for things they don't mean at all. "Liberation" is used to mean the toppling of a dictator, regardless of whether the people actually acquire liberty. "He's sweet," or "She's got a great personality," are code for describing people who are not considered attractive. "Green" means trendy.

So, I hope to make clear what I mean by the word "sustainable." I mean what the dictionary says: to be able to sustain, which is to continue, hold or give life to something. In this context sustainable means that we encourage lifestyles, business practice, infrastructure and agriculture that can continue giving life to the people and other living things on earth for as long as we possibly can. Sustainability is common sense with the long view.

This goes directly with some basic elements of our culture, and directly against others. Long-term common sense clashes instantly with the philosophy of instant gratification.

Remember when you were five and you always wanted to skip dinner and go straight to desert? I assume that your parents told you to finish your dinner first. Of course, when you're five, twenty minutes seem like an eternity and waiting is a difficult concept to fathom. In some ways our culture is not much more mature than the typical five-year-old. Since I was an adolescent I've heard the rhetorical question "Why wait?" used to excuse anything from drinking, to debt and beyond.

The same kind of thinking drives some people who own or manage forest land to cut down as many trees as they can now, to sell them, not thinking that, by doing so, they will deplete the soil. Soon the soil will be useless, and instead of allowing descendents to reap the benefits of well-managed land, they choose to get as much money as they can in this life, grasping for money as if it would accompany them when they die.

There is a better part of our culture that causes us to assume that the lifestyle that lasts the longest is the best. This is why we are taught to play hard, work hard, save money, and not waste things. A dollar saved on gasoline, or on the electric bill is one earned toward a new laptop, or at least one less little bit of work we need to do to pay the bills. We feel this intuitively. We generally know what we should do. It's putting it into practice that muddies the creek.

We don't recycle because nobody sticks a blue bin with tree arrows in a triangle right in front of us at the moment we want to throw our Diet Coke bottles away. So we pour a libation to the god of convenience by throwing our waste in the regular trash. We don't think that, in a few years, the landfill will be full of little decisions like that, and nobody will want a new landfill in their area.

Of course it's not convenient, but it's responsible in the long run. Things like carpooling or recycling aren't handed to us on a silver platter, but they're quite simple and easy, really. The people that design and facilitate the local system don't always collaborate with us, but I'll deal with them in my next column.

If you don't mind, all five of you that have read this far, I'd like you to play a little game with me. As you begin to settle into your new routine this week, think about the things you're doing, how you're eating, drinking, moving around and dealing with people. Don't just think about them in light of today. Think about their long-term impacts, whether harmful or helpful. Send me an e-mail and tell me what you discovered.

Christopher Vincent is a staff writer for The Arkansas Traveler. His column sppears every other Wednesday.