Steps

There are now 6.6 billion people living on the planet Earth. I’ll bet that number took you by surprise. It sure surprised me. When I was in college, studying over-population, that number was in the low 5 billion range. I haven’t paid attention for (what seems like) a few years and “boom”, we’ve added a billion and a half more people.

The problem is that the earth can’t sustain that many people, living the way that we do. There simply isn’t enough clean air, clean water, food, fish, oil, and energy to go around. And I hate to break the news, but we Americans consume more of these precious resources, per capita, than any other country. But let’s not take all of the blame: plenty of other countries are doing their part to pollute the world and degrade the environment.

We humans have lived blissfully off the fat of the land for many decades now. But the natural world that we live in is changing – and it’s changing fast. Global warming is hitting hard – climatologists have predicted that 2007 will be the warmest year on record. Yet at the same time the melting ice shelves in Greenland are expected to change the flow of warm water up the European coast in the winter, resulting in longer, harsher European winters. With warmer oceans have come stronger, deadlier hurricanes and typhoons. New Orleans knows this only too well. Global warming has taken on such severe proportions that even our own Commander-in-Chief has admitted that there might be something to this “global warming stuff”.

And with pollution to the environment, it’s become very hard to know what to eat and what to feed your kids. Assuming that you are like me and try and avoid the saturated fat/trans fat/palm oil laden processed foods, you have a choice of hormone and anti-biotic stuffed beef, hormone and anti-biotic stuffed chicken, farmed fish raised on toxic feed, wild fish high in mercury, or genetically engineered vegetables grown with buckets of chemicals that leach into the ground water.
Clearly, we 6.6 billion humans have left our mark on the Earth.

But there’s also room for optimism. In the last few years, there has been a very strong movement by people around the world to change to healthier and more environmentally friendly lifestyles. In fact there’s even a name for this movement, coined in Japan: LOHAS, or Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability. No matter what you call it, people are taking concrete steps to reduce, reuse, recycle.

Steve Weeks, a Dahon rider, commutes to work every day by bike, even through Chicago winters. He’s gotten fitter and reduced his commuting costs. Even though he still drives a car at times and I’m quite sure does his fair share of eating high up on the food chain (sorry Steve, couldn’t resist), he’s taken steps to change his lifestyle and reduce his impact on the environment.

The point is that few of us can go and live in a zero impact earth ship in Taos. But every one of us can take steps like Steve. I can choose to live close enough to work that I can walk to the office and walk home at lunch to eat with my wife and kids. I can choose to support organic farmers. I can choose not to buy toys for my kids that chew through batteries. And I can push for solar when my parents redo their house. You, me, and all of the other 6.6 billion people on this planet can choose to take the steps that will make life on this planet a lot more livable for the generations to come. And that’s a pretty important freedom.

- Joshua Hon, Vice President
September 2006