How Can We Save the Planet from Ecological Destruction?
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Ignite! had a big presence at Gnomedex 8.0 this month. There were many amazing talks, including this one by Alex Steffen. He shared with us his opinion on how we can save the World from Ecological destruction.
Alex Steffen has been the Executive Editor of Worldchanging since he co-founded the organization in 2003, as the next phase in a lifetime of work exploring ways of building a better future. In a very short time, Worldchanging has become the most widely-read sustainability-related publication on the Internet, with an archive of over 7,000 articles by leading thinkers around the world. It’s played an important role in revealing formerly obscure innovations and groundbreaking ideas, thereby pushing forward the sustainability movement and assisting in the growth of its network. Worldchanging has also been integral in garnering major support for important causes, such as the post-Tsunami relief effort, for which Worldchanging raised $150,000 in partnership with Architecture for Humanity. The critically-acclaimed site won the Utne Independent Press Award in 2004, and was nominated for Webby’s (the Oscars of the Net) for Best Blog and Best Magazine, as well as for Bloggies for Best Writing and Best Group Weblog.
According to Alex, we live in a very finite sphere of resources. We’re already exceeding the bio-capacity of the Earth. This means we are using more stuff than the Earth can sustain on a regular basis. The rate at which we’re exceeding it is astounding. The result of this is that there less and less planet for each of us. The bio-capacity per person is going down.
The United States is responsible for creating over 1/3 of the World’s CO2. There are measurements of how big our impact is. One of those is your ecological footprint. If you measure this footprint, you will land on a chart that has to do with degree of development, and level of impact. We know that wealth and waste are not matched. Californians, for example, are the wealthiest people by state in this country… and they have the lowest energy usage as well.
All sorts of aspect in our lives have to change. It’s not just about recycling. We need to look deep into the systems that created the stuff we use. Try out an online Life Cycle calculator. It will lay out for you the impact that the things you use and buy will have on the World in the future.
Alex feels we’re headed towards an era of transparency, allowing us to make better changes. We’re driving the market towards sustainability, which will come full circle and allow us to help keep the planet itself sustainable.
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