Eaarth shifted from all of the negative things happening to shining a light on what we need to do to slow and hopefully reverse the process of global warming.
Mckibben said that we need to start thinking "Husband, not boyfriend". That statement sums up our society. Sometimes we look at things in the short term and see those benefits, but lack to look past today. We need something stable. Something that supports us. Something that we don't tear down and that's what you look for in a husband/wife. Stability.
Society has gotten too big for its britches. McKibben makes this clear by comparing global warming to the bank bailout. We as a society have became so large that we no longer notice small warning signs. These banks were allowing people who had shown no ability to pay things off in the past loans for $400,000 homes.However, these were problems only large banks were having. The smaller banks were perfectly fine, until the economic crash. The crash the larger banks caused.
When a company is struggling one of the first things they do is downsize. Whether that's via lay offs or other forms, they decrease the number of workers they have. This is what we need to do for our planet. We need to downsize and get back to a healthy growth. This happens not only the workplace, but also in groups/organizations. Why would you keep a member that isn't carrying his own weight? You don't need that person, so why do we continue to do that to our planet? Why keep things that we don't need?
The best solution is to reduce our use. When buying we should only buy what we are going to eat and pay attention as to where what we are buying was made/produced. We shouldn't feel the need to buy foods imported halfway across the country just because they're in season somewhere else. We should also attempt to reuse what we no longer use into something with a purpose. With an engineering background I am always thinking of new ways to use old things. Recycling is also important, but sadly it takes a lot of energy. So, recycling should not be our number one solution. It should be a last resort.
There's two concepts in sustainability called first order change and second order change. First order change is shallow, surface change-- this includes recycling efforts, because recycling is not an end goal by any means. There still needs to be plastic, paper, metal, etc. waste to be able to recycle. Second order change is more along the lines of policy change and concrete environmental protection. This would include something like national adoption of renewable, green energy. Recycling is good, but not the best approach to sustainability. There needs to be a shift in those consumption practices, such as a common consensus on being zero-waste.
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