Practical Sustainability Strategies, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 25Epilogue: Where Do We Go Now?

Human life has been on this earth for about 50,000 (or somewhere between 6000 and 200,000 depending on the source) years. If we assume that 50,000 is correct, for the first 49,800 or so years man has lived in the open fields, in the mountains, in the forests, next to lakes, rivers and oceans, or in the savannahs. This is called biophilia from the Greek word meaning “love of nature.” As a result, this kind of life has been imbedded in the human gene as being normal. In the past 100–200 years, however, man has lived in cities consisting of brick, concrete, steel, glass, etc. Genealogically, this is not normal. Consequently, when a person wants to feel good, he/she goes to the ocean, lake, mountains, or open fields. That is why most people have paintings of landscape in their homes, and that is why most pictures in hospitals are that of landscapes. This makes people feel good. Is there a new norm?

Even many of the world's religions are greatly concerned about protecting the environment. For example, the beginning of the Sunday worship service in the Eastern Orthodox Church starts with, “For favorable weather, an abundance of the fruits of the earth, and for peaceful times, let us pray to the Lord.” Disrupting nature's life cycle invariably will cause some harm to the environment, something that is opposed by God. Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's Eastern Orthodox Church, has verbalized this thought when he said: “If human ...