Stop Biting Your Tongue

#44, June 14, 2000

In Joseph Heller's "Catch 22", Yossarian is asked by an Army colleague why people have to suffer pain. Yossarian explains that pain is the body's way of letting you know something is causing it harm. Not satisfied, the colleague asks why the body just couldn't use bells or something.

I thought about bells when I read a pair of columns by Donella Meadows, Director of the Sustainability Institute in Hartland, Vermont. In one, she describes the State of the Earth, from the Earth's perspective. If, in the 30 years since the first Earth Day, people have become more any more respectful of the Earth, the Earth hasn't noticed. The Earth is not impressed by Leonardo DiCaprio interviewing Bill Clinton about global warming. What the earth notices is this: human population increasing by 62%, oil extraction by 70%, gas extraction by 180%, coal mining by 73%, motor vehicles by 200%, carbon emissions by 64%, and average global temperature by 1 degree Fahrenheit.

So many bells… ho humm. What's a degree, any way?

Now, we wouldn't purposely hold our finger in a flame. Fingers are short, nerves are fast. But from the Earth's perspective, our fingers have been vastly extended in reach and power by technology. Thrilled with this newfound capability, we claw at Earth's crust, grab her forests, fling poisons to her sky. And because the global human neural feedback is slow and weak, we finger the fire, but feel no pain. Only distant bells-- the dry statistics, news stories to ignore.

So I'm warning you! Ever have the dentist give you novocaine, and you can accidentally bite your tongue really bad and not feel it until the shot wears off? Ever pick up a hot potato, and notice how, even after you let go, the pain increases for a while? That's where we are, Americans, still blissfully chomping down on our gas swilling tongue, fondling that baked potato of materialistic living.

Better feedback mechanisms would certainly help. As an example, Meadows writes about how the various gas mileage indicators in her new Honda hybrid have influence her driving habits. The heavy foot pushes mileage down into the 20s, and the gentle touch lets it soar into the 80s. For her, this feedback is enhanced by her knowledge that another degree of global warming could shift the warm North Atlantic Current away from the British Isles, leaving them as cold as Hudson Bay, their latitude equal. Ideally, we'd factor these impacts into the price of gasoline, making it easier for those less sensitive than Ms. Meadows to feel the burn.

Another improved feedback mechanism is the "ecological footprint" calculator. San Francisco ecologist Mathis Wackernagel has developed an ingenious and scientifically solid system for measuring people's impact on the earth's living systems. You enter into a spreadsheet answers to 13 simple questions about your food, transportation, housing, and energy. It calculates your footprint: roughly how many acres of the earth it takes to support your lifestyle.

I took the footprint measurement, and even with what I consider an ecologically sensitive lifestyle, I required 18 acres to support my material needs. If only 15% of the earth was set aside for non-human uses, it would require 4 earths to support everyone on earth at my standard of living. Better than the American average of 5.8, but still, Oink! However, with some incremental changes in my habits, I could get this down to under 3 earths. For starters, I'm switching to a "green" power supplier. (Check www.lead.org/leadnet/footprint/default.htm to run the footprint calculator online.)

Our fingers are far into the flame. It will take major commitment and creativity to get out without unbearable future pain. And until the ecological feedback becomes more real, our success will be driven not by our pain, but by our love. Do we love the innocent victims of our wasteful lives -- our children, their children, and all the earth -- enough to change the way we live?

I call on you to discover the joy of breaking bad habits! Ring the bells loudly, speak for the future. Stop biting your tongue.