To secure the future we need to reduce resource exploitation and pollution by reducing consumption.
Belt tightening, however, lacks broad appeal.
Pointing out what we can reclaim works better: more time for relationships, appreciation, service, sport, creativity, learning and the like. Such life-based activities can be represented by the single word “fun” because their effects are uplifting for those engaged.
The direction toward a sustainable world can then be expressed in a four-syllable meme: More Fun, Less Stuff
On a good day one can sense, through the fog of our world’s problems, a faint light. A glimmer of a place where humans live in balance with the Earth and with each other.
Viewed from the challenges of today, that place seems to be another dimension. And it is. The values by which people manage themselves are dimensions of worlds we might build, and this alternate dimension can be entered through More Fun, Less Stuff.
Renewable energy and electric equipment will be needed, but they are not enough. A positive future requires a shift in social values.
No longer can Growth be our goal. No more producing and consuming, earning and spending ever more! We need to maximize fulfilment from living, with the least possible material entanglement. We can compete with one another to see who can get the most satisfaction from living with the least material throughput.
Almost every dollar we spend represents extracted resources and pollution. The benefits go to enrich the top 1% and leave the bottom part of the population to deal with the waste. If your purchase won’t cause waste or inequity, go for it!
Learning, love and laughter, sport, music, dance, creativity, appreciation and helping others offer unlimited opportunities for satisfaction with minimum material requirements. And they’re fun.
Material necessities of food and shelter can be sustained by integrating with the natural world.
Nutrient flows have maintained all life since it began. Humans can eat well forever if we use our intelligence to avoid overshooting local capacity. Air, water and a handful of soil elements are the building blocks for all living things. These elements can cycle indefinitely through soil life, plants, animals, ourselves and back to the soil. By caring for soil, communities can have everlasting life.
For shelter, buildings can be assembled that require almost no outside energy. Comfort is maintained by facing the Sun to capture its warmth when needed, and for cooling, we can engage shade trees, hold onto the cool of the nights and tap the chill of underground.
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