Sustainable Living — A Great Cause We All Need to Embrace
Big government and big business aren’t enough. Grass roots community leadership is essential for success.
What Gives?
Sustainable Living is not just another platitude about Climate Change. It’s a pressing issue that demands our immediate attention and action. It’s a cause that we should wholeheartedly rally around.
I grew up in the suburbs of a large Midwestern city. It was like living in any other small town or suburb in America: I lived with quite a few people who looked and behaved alike. We also shared similar economic, educational, and work experiences and aspirations. Ultimately, we all wanted the same thing — a long and comfortable life. We felt like the culture that has been so carefully nourished is leading us down the path to sustainable living with relative ease.
Now that I am older and paying more attention to the news, a knot grows in my stomach. I began to realize there are barriers in the way that can seem overwhelming — climate change, economic inequality, racism, health care affordability, wars, and a growing mental health care crisis are a few. While I may not feel the disastrous effects created by these events directly, I now appreciate that others have and wonder if it could be my turn soon.
If you live in an urban area, you can see firsthand what I’m talking about. The solution seemed easy in the past: If you have enough money, leave and find a more agreeable setting. Today, it is not that easy; our problems cannot be left to others to solve. They are part of us.
Given our financial resources and advanced technologies, the US should be the poster child for sustainable living. We have promoted our version of democracy and capitalism as the critical systems to get us there. Big Government and Big Business are coming up with solutions that require us to re-examine who we are and what is really important. It will take all of us to own these problems and solve them together; local community leadership holds the key.
The United Nations (UN) adopted an initiative to foster sustainable development in 2015. One hundred sixty-six countries, including ours, have set goals for seventeen critical areas. These goals can transform our world and create a more sustainable future if we all work together.
The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) created by the project fit nicely into one or more of the four pillars of sustainability — economic, environmental, human, and social. When balanced, they offer the best prospects for long-term survivability for all humanity. The goals align with the four pillars in the following way:
1. Economic: Economic Growth & Decent Work, Energy Access, Sustainable Consumption & Production, Reduce Inequality
2. Environmental: Climate Change Management, Protect Ecosystems & Biodiversity, Sanitation and Potable Water, Conserve Ocean & Marine Resources
3. Human: End Poverty, Universal Food Security, Healthy Lives & Well-Being
4. Social: Inclusive & Safe Cities, Infrastructure Development, Gender Equality, Promote Peace, Strengthen Sustainable Development Partnerships
The UN reports and publishes detailed metrics for measuring progress in the seventeen goals annually. The 2023 SDG Report places the United States at 39th out of 166 countries reporting. Economic and Political rivals Russia and China are ranked 49th and 63rd, respectively.
The European Union’s members and affiliates comprise 24 of the top 25 countries in the 2023 SDG Report rankings, which shows that the EU is doing something right.
What’s Missing?
Over the last forty years, the United States, Russia, and China have chosen to concentrate their political and financial capital on their science, technology, and industrial capabilities to drive economic growth through greater consumption and, with it — global influence. Consciously or unconsciously, this has been at the expense of allocating capital to balance all four pillars required for sustainable living.
Capital and resources are not infinite — only so much is accessible at any given time. Balancing the four pillars of sustainability is, with some exceptions, a zero-sum game. The resources/capital applied to one reduces availability to the others. The more you commit to growing the economy, the greater the environmental, human, and social capital deficiencies. It’s called balancing the budget.
The consequence of this type of focus leads to crises resulting in gross environmental damage, inequality-driven social and political unrest, and human suffering due to armed conflict and forced migration. We may not feel its impact on family and friends, but we see it in the news and the cost of goods we buy at the stores we frequent. Lifestyle choices have to be made for many.
Big government and big business are adept at insulating themselves from critics of their actions. Business consolidation has made some large corporations “too big to fail.” If they go down, who will employ and feed those displaced? Probably not the private sector. The non-profits are overwhelmed already, and donations are harder to come by.
Government officials trade power for favors and political cover, degrading their role as representatives of the people they serve. We see the failure and experience the outcry in the news every day.
Where To From Here
The EU has demonstrated a clear plan and the people’s support for making some hard choices. It is leading the way. However, the EU lacks global influence and does not provide adequate incentives for others to follow.
While the US has a plan, tools, and resources, it needs a consensus among the people and the political will to execute it effectively. Sustainable living requires people to accept choices that are in the best interests of the common good. However, our heritage and culture prize individual rights and freedoms, creating conflicting attitudes and beliefs on how best to move forward.
Personal or local interests can override the common good unless there is a real and immediate existential threat. It took years of dialogue and, ultimately, the bombing of Pearl Harbor to gain the consensus for us to enter World War II. Few people are living today to reinforce a call to action of this magnitude. While climate change is an existential threat, it has yet to produce the equivalent of a “Pearl Harbor” moment that elevates the danger and demands that leadership act forcefully.
The upcoming election offers two very distinct forms of leadership. One drives us towards achieving Sustainable Living goals by supporting balanced legislation to address economic expansion, global environmental treaty compliance, inequality, health reform, and social stability. It looks towards the EU as a trusted ally that shares common goals that can ultimately balance the four pillars of sustainability.
The other, more conservative leadership looks to reshape American culture, allowing it to rationalize our global economic interests to accommodate those of Russia and China. Our version of democracy and capitalism would be redefined to enable greater control by concentrating power and decision-making within a small group. It continues to focus on economic expansion at the expense of many other considerations to align itself with the interests of the other global political and economic powers.
Our American democratic principles are compromised by rolling back existing legislative efforts to give even greater access to government by large global corporations and wealthy individuals with political interests when determining our national policies and priorities. In the process, we start looking and acting more like Russia and China.
The conservative propaganda machines keep telling us that with the new form of capitalism and democracy, our culture changes, and we accept a less fair and accessible system. Sustainable living is no longer feasible, and we all face the longer-term consequences of economic, environmental, human, and social capital destruction together. This does not bode well for middle-class America.
Getting Down To The Grass Roots
It is incredible how few people seriously consider their character and how it was created. Character translates our values, beliefs, and attitudes into actions. Many think it is a natural event that happens as you grow up. In some respects, that is true. They fail to realize that responses to people, experiences, geography, and mental states condition them.
Three institutions within any community help move the character development process forward: family, public and private formal education, and places of worship.
Parents, family, and community are traditionally the most influential in the process. Based on their life experiences, your parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents share their values, beliefs, and attitudes about good, bad, right, and wrong. Your character development is likely more advanced if your family has learned and practiced critical thinking in their problem-solving as part of their own education. Your peers in the local community allow you to test and validate these life lessons or help reshape them. They lay the foundation for the character traits that define who you are and how you live your life.
Public and private educators have a broad charter to teach you and your children to be responsible and productive within the community. The process is complicated by the wide variations in a student’s capacity and interest in learning, which are reflected in the character and resulting behavior of the students. Honesty, creativity, kindness, self-regulation, perseverance, judgment, social intelligence, and forgiveness, among other qualities, are required to function successfully in an academic environment and society in general.
Education systems often attempt to strengthen some character traits to facilitate a student’s learning capacity by offering them a well-rounded educational experience.
Public educational institutions have been criticized for failing to produce graduates with employable technical skills. STEM is the latest buzzword for a curriculum rich in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. This often comes at the expense of the liberal arts curriculum. Opportunities for character development through English, History, Logic, Debate, Philosophy, Communications, and the Arts, where creativity and critical thinking are nourished but now lack support. Many students become technologically proficient but lack maturity in their critical thinking and social skills. This requires other influencers to step up to help in character development.
Organized religion has been an integral part of the US cultural scene since the country’s founding. Judeo-Christian biblical roots are evident in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Contributions by religious individuals and organizations are also reflected in our legal system and government.
Despite declining participation in formal worship services, they are integral to our culture. When you think about the components that make up our character, they can be found in the parables and other teachings in the Bible. The gospels still teach us how to conduct ourselves and think critically about our surroundings. However, the parables, as instructional aids, become more abstract when applied in today’s larger, more complex social environment. Even the significance of the rituals and prayer handed down from the early formation of church services has a diminishing emotional impact on participants with every generation that passes.
The question is now one of relevance. Plenty of professional resources from commercial organizations help us examine our values, beliefs, and attitudes in a modern context that reinforces the same character traits associated with the gospels. They tell a compelling story that gives resolve. Church offers the missing piece: accountability to a higher authority impervious to human propaganda and ego. Combining commercial and spiritual resources provides a broad sense of purpose for individuals to invest their time and effort.
Now is the time to demand leadership from all these institutions to support sustainable living as a worthy cause for all. Family members must be aware of their role in character development, recognize the potential threats, and be willing to seek help. Educator and church leadership need to become proactive, not reactive, in developing and communicating the tools needed to strengthen individual character against influencers intent on reshaping our culture and character to accept their narrow political and economic order.
Given the choices in the upcoming election, time is not a friend.
