Beginning "A Dialog on Place"

#57, December 13, 2000

I always read Jack Balshaw's column. It's convenient, and thought-provoking. It was Jack's column that got me started on this journalistic journey by asking what environmentalists really wanted.

That's still a good question, as two men who Jack claims are moderate (versus extreme) environmentalists prepare to join the City Council. What do environmentalists want, especially the "extreme" ones like me? I'm not tempted to summarize the 40,000 words of answer I've written here over these past two years. You can read them at www.arguscourier.com, or wait for the book compilation.

But there is one fossil I'll dig up. In my first column, shortly after the 1998 election, I wrote about how the labels we put on things both reflect and shape how our culture deals with them. Which leads to one of my pet peeve questions: "when are we going to stop calling our local and global life support systems 'the environment?'" My thesaurus finds these synonyms for environment: "surroundings, setting, situation, location." This suggests the earth is inanimate, and our relationship to it temporary, disconnected. It's like our world is a room that we can enter, remodel as we please, and if we mess it up, we can… find another room? (Mars?) Let the kids fix it? ("Here's your inheritance, son… and don't lose the gas mask.") Is that really what we want?

What if instead of environment we used something that more accurately reflects the nurturing and sustaining nature of nature, like womb or placenta, or Gaia, the earth mother? That would change the tone of the debate. Could people so easily say, "We need to balance the interests of Mother Gaia with those of the coal mining industry"? "These umbilical-cord-hugging placentalists threaten the American way of life"? "Regulations must not violate the rights of owners to use their parcel of The Womb as they see fit"?

But these are just words, and it's easy to launch them into the community from keyboards or rostrums, even if we are trying earnestly to live by them. What do we do about our wombmates who don't see it that way. Is collaborative co-evolution a possibility? Or are we frozen into polar opposites, destined for a perpetual pendulum pattern of old majority, new majority, new old majority, new new majority?

I'm not willing to be stuck in that boxing ring box. It lacks imagination and efficiency. A few years ago, Petaluma's Healthy Community Consortium (aka HC squared) launched a program to foster ongoing community discussion of racial issues, the conflicts and opportunities. They called it A Dialog on Race. I'm suggesting that we apply the HC2 collaborative model to our biosphere issue, and begin A Dialog on Place.

The Dialog on Place could range from worldviews to water rights. Participants would be encouraged to explore the assumptions and values underlying their policy preferences. I might ask the moderate environmentalists if and when they plan to make the transition to a sustainable economy. They might want to know how I might finance that transition and keep the streets safe. It might be contentious, but there are good techniques for keeping the talk positive and results-oriented. It wont eliminate spirited debate and split votes at the City Council, but it could give everyone a wider perspective on issues, and more empathy for those with contrary interests and positions.

We have an opportunity to begin this dialog as a part of the City's General Plan rewrite effort, especially the Sustainability component. Sustainability, which can have extremely practical and narrow applications, is also the perfect catalyst for consideration of broader ecological issues. Unfortunately, four members of the new Council have said they are leaning toward eliminating the new plan's sustainability focus. That would be short sighted. This methodology is already steering the City toward a least-cost consensus on the new sewage treatment plant, and will guide future investments away from economic/ecological disasters.

Let your Council Members know that since \ we like this place where we live, sustainability is a value we can't afford to ignore. It's time we all start talking about it.