Introduction
“Only when I saw the Earth from space, in all its ineffable beauty and fragility, did I realize that humankind’s most urgent task is to cherish and preserve it for future generations.”
~Sigmund Jahn, German Cosmonaut
Breathing: your mom does it, your dad does it, your dog, your cat, and your imaginary pet of your choice does it. In fact you’re probably doing it right now. At this very instance. Are we right? Thought so.
Now before you go and call the police, we’re not watching you through your window or stalking you around in some large oversized cardboard box with a pair of legs sticking out the bottom and the words “Post Office Box” poorly written on it in crayon1.
No concerned reader, believe it or not we knew you were breathing because like you, your mom, your dad, and Wendy, your imaginary domestic armadillo, we’re breathing too. And like you, we’re concerned. Not necessarily about walking Post Office Boxes. Nope, we’re concerned about a certain large gravitational mass that many of us, perhaps you included, are anchored to. It’s called the Earth. We dig it. And we’re not talking literally.
This booklet is written from some perspectives that we’d like to draw your attention to directly at this point. Leftist? Rightist? Ist-ist? We’ll let you decide.
One bias:
Earth Is Good.
The people that wrote this book come from the perspective that having a planet to live on is a good thing and not having a planet to live on is a bad thing. We enjoy having a planet to live on now and we want to make sure that we have one when we’re older and have kids, and our kids have kids, and their kids have imaginary domestic armadillos, and so on.
Another bias:
Consumption Is Necessary.
You know, buying stuff, eating stuff... buying more stuff... It’s part of our capitalistic/consumer society. The act of consuming isn’t inherently evil. People need to eat, be clothed, get to work and so on. Consumption drives the economy and most economic experts agree that a strong economy is a good thing. We get it. We enjoy buying shirts, shoes, and pogo sticks as much as the next person who enjoys those same things.
However what we’re on a quest for is to find a way to meet our needs and wants today while ensuring that we’ll be able to meet them tomorrow. This starts with asking the tough questions like “do I really need that second or third pogo stick?”, “can I get by with just one?”, or “hey, why don’t I just hop with my legs to school?”. They’re tough questions to ask but essential ones given our biases, and here at EarthVibe we treat our biases like they’re facts. “Earth is good”. “Consumption is necessary”. Both facts. You can look it up in our unpublished encyclopedia.
What it all really boils down to is that we want to have a place to live when we’re older and we hope you do too. We can’t do it alone.
You breathe. We breathe. On this we can all relate. Applying some of the small changes found in this book at an individual level not only helps you to be sustainable, it helps everyone.
So embrace the consumer inside you and consume this.
~EarthVibe~
1. If someone is actually watching you right now through the window or following you around in some large oversized cardboard box with a pair of legs sticking out the bottom and the words “Post Office Box” poorly written on it in crayon, consider calling the police. We apologize in advance for making this point a footnote, especially if you don’t read footnotes until the end of the page and there is someone outside your window. If that’s you, congrats, you made it to the footnote.
