The Big Misunderstanding: Why We Don’t Need to Save the Planet |
Published by Hubert Den Draak under Green Living
Okay, it’s been bugging me for too long. It’s time to get this out of my system, so get ready for a rant. We’re all familiar with those catchphrases encouraging us to change the way we do certain things in order to “save the planet”, “help the environment”, or (my favorite) “because the Earth will say thank you”.
The recent Earth Hour was another stellar example. We were asked to turn our lights off for one hour to help save the planet, once again. Even if the aim is simply to build awareness, it just doesn’t do anything for me.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m committed to living a sustainable life. After all, my home is the Nolalu Eco Centre, where we use renewable energy, and the list of sustainable actions goes on and on.
Saying the green movement is about saving the planet bothers me for two reasons: one, because it’s not true, and two, because it makes us do these things for all the wrong reasons. Saving the planet is a red herring.
We don’t observe Earth Hour to save the planet. Recycling, solar power, composting, eco-tourism, straw bale buildings, insulation, eco-centers, CFLs, triple-pane windows, hybrid cars: the Earth couldn’t care less!
Making all these green choices is not about saving the planet; it’s about saving ourselves. Mother Earth will be just fine without us, thank you very much. George Carlin said it well in his 1992 environmental satire, “The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.”
What’s the worst that could happen should we decide to not turn those lights off, insulate, recycle, use CFLs, compost, or make any other effort to go green? The worst that could happen is the demise of human civilization.
Too bad for us, but good news for the planet.
We have been seriously messing with the balance of things ever since the Industrial Revolution. We act and the planet/environment responds. Acid rain, unbreathable air, toxic drinking water, dead zones in our oceans, climate change—that’s nature responding to our acts. We’re not killing the planet; we’re killing ourselves.
Remove humankind from the face of this planet, and before you know it, it will perk up, heal itself (move in the right direction, at least) in a few short decades and restore its natural balance without any outside help.
On the other hand, take something seemingly insignificant, like ants or spiders, out of that same equation, and entomologist Ken Deacon estimates that within three to four month the ecosystem will have deteriorated to a point where life as we know it cannot sustain itself, including us.
In my book, that makes ants considerably more valuable than us humans.
This planet doesn’t need us to get saved; we need this planet to save us. We exist by the grace of an infinitely finely-tuned living organism called the Earth. We don’t run this organism, we’re not in charge of it, we’re not even its guardians. It’s the other way around: it’s in charge of us and is our guardian. Mess with it in a serious way, and we’re history.
So next time you decide to ride your bike to the corner store instead of driving, do it for all the right reasons: do it for yourself. Compost for your kids, use CFLs for your friend’s kids, insulate for everyone’s grand kids. Future generations, not the Earth, will say thank you.
And please, be careful with the ant spray! Thanks for indulging this ranter.
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46 Responses to “The Big Misunderstanding: Why We Don’t Need to Save the Planet”
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That was great and I agree. I read another great article about this very thing and that it might be more helpful if we realized that we were doing this for “our” environment, not the planet. More realistic, no doubt, although I think it is a challenge for most people to think that way. We so love a “cause” and for some reason “we” aren’t it, and it’s imperative that we are if we want the planet to continue to sustain us in any relatable way. Jill
This was a fantastic read! If we framed the environmental movement in these terms, I wonder if more folks would get on board.
I completely agree with this article. We are killing ourselves, not the planet. I know I don’t live crazy eco-friendly, but I try to do my part. I know that the Earth can pick itself back up if we all died tomorrow and live on almost as if we were never there at all. There is a song by The Streets called The Way of the Dodo, that is worth checking out!
The only issue that I have with this argument is that it doesn’t take into account the damage to biodiversity. To recreate a natural order would take millions of years.
I completely agree with you… Just one question… If we are so bad for the planet (and we are) why bother to inconvenience ourselves to save a species that is so destructive and insignificant…? Shouldn’t we be taking action to hasten the Earth purging us from existence?
The people on this planet may change their ways, but only because laws will be in place to stop larger organizations and underlings from polluting the way they are… Until we get desperate enough to force people to do things… All anyone “doing their part” is doing is making it easier for they themselves to sleep at night…
If we REALLY want to help the planet… let’s piss it off…
~Keepa Pu Daxta
Laundry Thief
Blog: Questioning a Fool
“The worst that could happen is the demise of human civilization.”
Not to mention all the other wild life on the planet. Sure some animals might survive. But we will take most of them down with us.
Just something else to consider.
Stumbled here, stumbling on,
Cheers!
You took the words out of my mouth!
I couldn’t agree more with you, I’ve been saying this for a while and have started to feel that I’m banging my head against a wall… people just don’t get it.
Regarding the effect of human actions on biodiversity, we need to look at things on a much larger time scale. There have been several massive extinctions on this planet in the past. What we see around us is the result of evolution from the survivors of past extinctions. Whether we were here or not, eventually a mass extinction would occur and a new flourish of life would emerge from the survivors.
Why We Don’t Need to Save the Planet? Simple..Because we can’t. Earth exists, independent of humans. It was here long before us, and it’ll be here, long after us. All we can hope for is, some say in how long we get to play. It’s the bottom of the 9th, and Mother Nature always bats last.
I don’t think this was something that really needed to be written up in an article in such a way that it comes across to deter people from doing things that will be more ‘environmentally friendly.’ Sure your opinion makes sense, all good and well.
Although we aren’t just killing ourselves, we are killing what’s around us, we’re using up the earth’s resources, some of which aren’t renewable. Eliminating species, the planet will survive without us, more animals with thrive without us being here, but for now…saving it for OUR well-being and the other creatures in which we share Earth with.
I often use the analogy that we are like Japanese Beatles, we gobble up everything in site..Until one day there is nothing left to gobble on…And i really love those bags that proclaim, I used to be a plastic bottle…Yeah right, now i’m a big freaking bag, at least a Duck couldn’t crawl into a bottle!!
that could have possibly been the worst argument i’ve ever heard.
These are all great responses, all making good points. But do you folks really think humankind is just another life form in the chain of evolution, destined for extinction – or is there something that sets us apart from the ants (other than that they’ve been around for over 100 milion years)? As a species we’re still toddlers in diapers, learning things the hard way, capable of both great goodness and great destruction.
Sure I agree about the whole “save the planet” slogan not being what it’s about, but I think that the “demise of humanity” slogan isn’t really any better. Humanity won’t vanish from the face of the earth. Humanity is like yeast, or any number of other natural phenomena, put some yeast in a glass of warm sugary water it will use the sugar as energy turning the solution into alcohol. Just read oil for sugar and C02 for alcohol.
I think what’s disappointing is humanity has done some amazing things but collectively we seem to about as intelligent as yeast.
Green is the new god. We can all feel better doing our little bit.
I agree with the o/p that planet Earth will survive without us. Humankind is similar to an infection that bothers you for a while and then is dealt with…
Life on Earth does not need us.. we need it
Biggest bunch of jibberish I have ever read. There is no telling how many different species that have vanished from the earth over the eons. Without humankind, what is the reason to have a sustainable earth?
A Statement is not an argument, Nor is an Analogy, However it was supposed to be sarcastic and humorous at the same time.
Regarding Gary’s statement above.
What is the reason for having a sustainable earth? The earth is sustainable with out us. It always has been. There are incredibly complex feedback loops built into the way the planet operates, the simplest of which is the fact that animals exhale CO2 and plants exhale O2.
Sustainability is a human concept. Just because we came up with it does not mean it’s a new idea. Organisms die, they decompose and the resulting nutrients are used by plants/fungi/bacteria. That is sustainability.
Hundreds of years ago Galileo was chastised for claiming the sun was the center of the universe not the earth. It seems now the current thought is humans are the center of the universe; everything that happens revolves around us. This is masked behind a thin veil of eco-friendly, green, environmentalist mania with the purported goal to be to save the earth, but it’s all really just about saving our asses.
The worst we can do is destroy ourselves, and all but decimate the ecosystem around us. You are right in warning us against overestimating the impact of our actions, but should we underestimate them instead? We should be motivated by a sense of urgency, not only on our own parts, but on the part of the planet as well, because we hold the keys to its ecological future.
This whole “Green Movement” is just some lame fad anyway. Everybody’s capitalizing on it too, selling “biodegradable” products that were shipped at the expense of hundreds of gallons of gasoline and packaged in heaps of Styrofoam and cardboard. People make me sick, the fact Americans believe that their active consumerism is going to save the world (ahem… human race)is absolutely idiotic. We worship our excessively wasteful, lazy lifestyles so much because of how heavily advertisements propagate it. And now, people are looking to fix that problem by buying shit that’s “better for the environment”? Humans are terrible animals, I honestly hope we all die here on earth, because if we get off the planet the universe is in serious fucking trouble.
So true. Have you been reading Ishmael? :p
We almost have the technologies in line to survive as independent family units, apart from the “Evil Empire”, the “New Babylon”, The ” American Dream”, and be self-sufficient, comfortable, paced, in sustainable survival shelters, feeding and housing ourselves without drawing on the “Grid” for power or sustenance – as opposed to living beyond our daily incomes, in forcloseable McMansions, driving planned to be obsolete, gas guzzling SUV’s, and having no social securities what so ever! Universal health care like Canada and most of Europe and all of China have now, is next, Obama said so! We are victims, in our democracy of its cancer, rabid vulture capitalism and all it’s evils – daughters become whores, sons become soldiers or slaves to “The Man”, families are reduced to ashes, lifestyles become frantic rush for money and cheap entertainment, and humanity becomes war-games, violent sex practices and fast cars. All of this, too, is our environment – our social/psychological environment, and right now, in America it is the sickest, porn ridden, dope infested, alcohol soaked debt ridden, education subjugating, religion suffocating, morals muffling, soul killing environment ever! Not only do modern Americans literally shit all over themselves, filling the best lakes, rivers, and seashores with their humanure instead of making bio-gas and valuable fertilizer from shit at no cost, they shit on their children’s spirits with a steady flow from the movie theaters and television, of some of the most crass crap the advertisers can get away with to sell shawdy but highly profitable products. The social environment in the U.S.A. is in the same shape as the natural environment and it is time for the U.S.A. to embark on a new voyage, in a better direction, leaving the shysters, swindlers, shylocks, banksters, and fraudsters behind on the gallows with the polluters. We need to clean up this country in more ways than you think, or succumb to third world status, overtaken by the Chinese communist system, and subjugated to it, economically as now, financially as in “soon” and politically when they decide it advantageous – the U.S.A. the only Empire ever brought down without firing a shot! What a coup for the Chinese in History!
yeah, people don’t seem to realize that the planet is doomed regardless. It doesn’t really care what we do to it. Saving resources only makes it a more pleasant living experience for ourselves.
You think we are going to kill all the animals and humans on the planet over the span of 200 years by turning off the lights? If people really wanted to save the environment they would start burning down production factories… So we take out ourselves and the poor animals… F–k em… Animals are selfish jerks anyways… They just “look” cute… If they were so great they would have their own nukes… If we killed every animal species on this planet… the Earth would make new types… Or maybe the Earth is sick of making animals because it always leads to nuclear war and it will just be plants… warm thoughts
ive been on this one since /Users/lespaulwilliams/Desktop/a586814396_225563_6901.jpg . i got asfar as the above
People have been too isolated and with time overused for material things than the development of themselves spiritually. What are we all trying to build with all these giant cities? A set of boxes to hide ourselves from each other?
@ Corey
I disagree with your extremely negative arguments. First, I don’t think it is logical to call humans terrible animals. From the looks of it, we seem to be the most fit animals around (though we would probably be more so if we didn’t spend so much time killing each other). Secondly, I am not sure that Americans believe that their consumerism is going to save the world. Two keystone words of the green movement are “reduce” and “reuse” which are at absolute ends with traditional American consumerism. Maybe some people (ahem, not just Americans) approach being Green the wrong way, but let’s not assume the Movement is in its last evolution. “Green” is constantly changing as our knowledge of the Earth and ourselves increases. It is clear that to live on earth in a sustainable way we are going to have to change our consumerist tendencies. Is that impossible? I sure hope not. Besides, it is a change which is already in progress. For example, by calling to attention the excessive packaging in which environmentally friendly items are shipped, you have already, albeit in a small way, increased our awareness of bad products.
Why give up on sustainability? Nothing wants to die.
We are part of this planet; organic life is part of earth; the good, the bad and the ugly features of the human condition are all predetermined, evolved elements that interact exactly like the cogs of a well-oiled machine. The farce of individuality and free will can be as easily proven by trying to touch your left elbow with your left hand, or simply looking down from the window of a plane and seeing all the other people like us with ten fingers, ten toes, two eyes, two hands, two feet. Why can’t we get it through our heads?
Perhaps that annoying thing we’ve characterized as the “ego” within human beings gives us this idea that somehow we are separate from the rest of organic life. The earth can’t shake us off “like fleas” in the same way we can’t shake off our heads. We are the collective consciousness of the earth; the “head”, which continues to evolve and transform, or if you prefer to ascribe a particularly human feature, “learn”.
These days it is considered religious and unsophisticated to describe life in terms of the human world, but perhaps the human body, our daily interactions, and our relationship to the world around us is the best map of the universe we have. As humanity evolves so too does the earth. We, along with the flora and fauna of the planet, transform energy into matter in our own unique way; refining matter into something that contributes to the earth’s increasing “intelligence” in a broad sense. Humanity’s demise might be considered then a huge step backwards if one subscribes to this idea of a “conscious” planet in evolution.
I love this post because it is dead on. The “treehuggers” need to learn to get away from “loving Mother Earth” and start selling the idea of Sustainability! Nobody can argue with Sustainability, a.k.a. good long term decision making that benefits society. This is exactly why I created my blog:
http://blog.mapawatt.com/
@Chase. While I like most of your comment, you start off on a very poor foot. We are NOT AT ALL the most fit of the animals. While yes, we may have the ability to destroy the life that is around us, driving many species into extinction, we are babies on this planet. After we’ve been around as long as the crocodiles and ants, maybe then we can talk about being fit. But if it were possible to wager on this, I would bet everything that the human species is not a part of this planet for nearly as long as the crocodiles or the ants.
Genius post. Honestly, I had never heard of a theory like this, or even thought about it for that matter, but I think that this argument should be preached worldwide and the people in charge of “Earth “Day”, “Hour”, and “Year”, should as well. Humans want to do things for their own purpose. Changing the slogan to “For Your Own Good” rather than “For The Planets Good” would do wonders for us.
The thing is… we’re so linked to anything and everything with our landscape changing technologies that before we go (which won’t be in a blink if the climate goes wrong) we’ll have war and basically kill most other big species alive… Yah, maybe ants and others will survive and adapt and all, but trying to stay on earth right now, keeping our footprint low or even help out in the other way might be a better idea in the long run for the survival of life (and i don’t mean humans).
cheers!
The stuff such as recycling and such have an effect on other beings that help mother nature. If we do some stuff to lessen our adverse effect on such things as Bees mother nature will benefit. Your premise is correct that Earth will do without us, of course it will do much better even, but some of your examples are faulty.
He’s sort of right with this. The reason that we don’t need to save the planet is more of a cosmic kind of question. Cause when you think about it, as far as we know, we are the only life in the universe. We’re the odd planet out of a fluid still-life portrait.
I think certainly those who think we should all die off for the planet’s benefit should feel free to shuffle off. Also to argue that we are less fit than ants or crocodiles because they’ve been here for ever so long and we haven’t imposes a value on evolution that is timespan-centric. Surely none of the other species are counting! Our self-awareness puts us in a unique position.
And I say, if anyone creates less waste, or less of a footprint on this globe, then I don’t care if they’re doing it for Paris Hilton’s latest tiny dog! All’s good! Some of us, oddly, like trying to ensure our survival AND making earth pleasant(er.)
As for earth’s survival without us, well, sure, we’d have to screw-up even more monumentally than seems likely to actually destroy the globe itself! But we can indeed take many or most of the flora and fauna with us as we go. Yes, maybe millenia from now, cockroaches will be the Adam and Eve of a screwy new Earth, á la Phillipe José Farmer, but who needs such cataclysms?
What’s more, as my six year old says, “Earth is my favorite planet in the solar system.” It is within reach of being as much a paradise as I ever need to see! So, while it may not be strictly for the planet’s benefit that I act more “green,” it is also not true that I do it for my own survival. I’m 47, and not likely to be killed outright by human environmental idiocy in terms of climate change and so forth (unless I am run over by the Exxon Valdez crossing Main Street some fine morning.) I actually want me and mine to continue being an excellent fit with our home planet.
Finally, I’m doing it for you people. Yes, you strangers. Even you “humans would be better off dead” folks. Watch a Capra film, learn to clog dance, whatever, but stop moping about the wrongness of people doing the right thing. I recommend ranting about insincere suicide bombers, or people who tailgate needing to learn wave theory, or something that would actually be good if people stopped it altogether. Enjoy your day(s.)
[...] ElArte (Posted Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:10 pm)From this blog:http://greenbydesign.com/2009/04/02/the … he-planet/Published by Hubert Den Draak on April 02, 2009 under Energy Efficiency, Sustainability Okay, [...]
[...] read an article recently entitled ‘The Big Misunderstanding: Why We Don’t Need to Save the Planet’ – in it, the author talks about this exact idea that going green isn’t about saving the [...]
[...] by an excellent post on Green By Design about how it’s ourselves we are protecting, rather than the actual planet Eart…, I think it’s safe to say that half of the people I interact with each day believe that Earth [...]
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Besides living in sustainable way we have to drastically reduce the poor population by the natality! Then we’ll have less people to be exploited, we’ll better balance the resources and producing a lot let less trash. Less humans, less troubles. Ridiculously obvious!
First of all we should consider a few facts before we think any further. The population of the earth for thousands of years was around 200 million and then around the time of the industrial revolution went up to the present 7 billion (soon to rise to 10 billion by 2050) That is plague proportions.Also if you were to consider life on this planet as a piano keyboard we have been around for only the width of a piano string ! also consider that over 90% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct. Right I hope that gets ourselves in perspective. We are not special , we only think we are, because we’re able to think those thoughts. It’s not our large brains/conscience/morals that define who we are but our egos. What an irrational thing on which to base our judgements.The truth is we invented our way into this mess and our misplaced arrogance presumes we can invent our way out of it. The bottom line is a certain set of circumstances brought about our existence, it thereby stands to reason that if you greatly alter those circumstances then life will suffer and our ability to survive will diminish … simple.Just pause to consider this…a cheetah is just fast enough to catch it’s prey and a giraffe’s neck is just long enough to reach the leaves but what if we’re just not clever enough to outwit nature. It’s a big ask, can we really do better than the very set of circumstnces that brought about our very existense. How arrogant, how deluded, how naive. When we decide who is the superior animal on this planet how vey convenient that we set the criteria…intelligence…why not the fastest animal,the one that’s been around the longest, the one that causes the least damage,the one that is most essential to life on earth, the one that lives the longest … hey we wouldn’t win any of those would we. It’s a bit like a room full of athletes debating who is the best and the tall guy stands up and says ” I know how we’ll decide, it’s the one who can jump the highest” We won’t change, we won’t invent our way out of this. We’ll carry on in our selfish, greedy self deluded way until we’re a busted flush. We’re fiddling while Rome burns, we’re like the walking dead. Somethings are just too big, too far gone.Somethings just don’t have a solution. It’s not a matter of if, but when. I’d say that’s sometime within the next 200 years (probably sooner rather than later) we’ve been a disaster as a species, let’s face it.
This is really freaky.
I dont know why ppl try 2 scare us………?
[...] guess is that most of us aren’t thinking about saving ourselves and the planet while pursuing sports and hobbies — we’re simply aiming for real-time stress relief. While [...]
Very very good point. Like you said the planet (and it’s inhabitants) would do much better with out us. The changes we need to make are to save our own butts!
I think this is a fantastic post with a realistic view, but we can’t stop trying to change for the better. We need to do every bit we can and get behind our governments to make changes in our laws because it is there where we can make mass change!
To Pinky: I don’t think anyone is trying to scare you! The truth is scary! We as a species could be wiped out and its because of our own actions!