Living on the Earth (Column: 1/2/07)

Our children are taught many things, in school and out of it, these days, but with rare exceptions, they're being taught little about how to live on this earth. Oh, sure, they're being taught -- formally and by immersion -- all about how to live in our contemporary techno-industrial society, but that is by no means the same thing.

In fact, our present society does not help us live on the earth; rather, it insulates us from the need to. It helps us to live off of the earth; that is, to exploit and subdue the natural world, to consume resources faster than natural processes can replenish them, but that is something entirely different from living on the earth.

In fact, in many ways, in our climate-controlled buildings and vehicles, our synthetic-fiber clothing, eating industrially-grown and processed food and drinking artificially flavored and sweetened drinks, we are like space aliens on our own planet. Destructive aliens, at that.

We are not the first human culture to exceed the carrying capacity of its environment; many fallen empires can be traced to this recurring human tendency. But we are the first to do so on a global level, and the implications of that are truly frightening. There is an old saying that goes, "if you want to dance, you have to pay the piper." We've been dancing at a dizzying rate in recent decades, and it's starting to look like payment's coming due.

This is reflected in the realization that global stocks of oil and natural gas are not inexhaustible, and are nearing -- if indeed they have not already reached -- the peak of their production, worldwide. Declines will surely follow. It is reflected in worsening weather conditions, melting glaciers, and other indications that the climate is out of whack, and that this is due in large measure to human activities.

It is reflected in phenomena like desertification, extended droughts, crop failures and famine abroad, and increasingly, wars or threats of wars over scarce water and fuel resources. Overpopulation in the developing world is part of the problem. But consumption overpopulation in the developed world, where each individual uses many times the energy used by people elsewhere, is an even bigger contributor to the current crisis.

Although the specifics are different in every case, the root cause seems the same: we have forgotten how to live on the earth, instead of living off of it. It's a lesson we must re-learn. Obviously, we can't become intimate with the entire earth; it's too big. But we can become deeply acquainted with our own particular piece of it: our own bioregion, as it is called. Here are some questions from "A Bioregional Quiz," available online, which can provide a sense of how well you know that portion of the earth on which you live:

Trace the water you drink from precipitation to tap.
From which direction do winter storms usually come in this area?
Where does your garbage go?
How long is the growing season in this area?
Identify five edible plants native to your area.

And here's a bonus question -- consider it extra credit: trace the runoff of rainwater, and the sediments and chemicals it carries, from your downspout or driveway to the Chesapeake Bay.

Now give yourself a grade: 5 right is a 100%; 4 right is 80%, 3 right is 60%, and so on. How well (or otherwise) did you score? If you got three questions or less correct, including the bonus, ask yourself: am I truly living here in Carroll County, or am I just happening to exist here, temporarily? And is that what I really want, for myself and my family? To be a visitor, a stranger, an alien?

Douglas Wood, writing in his book Fawn Island, said it well: “At rock bottom, either we belong here or we don't. Either the smell of crushed pine needles, forest breezes, sweet clover, rain, and moist earth is the smell of home or it is not… Either we identify with this world of tree and star, flower and desert, stone and water and belong to it or not... If not, we are essentially aliens, refugees on our own planet.”

Let's make it our resolution, this New Year, to overcome our alienation from our earthly home: to learn more about the bioregion in which we live, and how to live more lightly and respectfully within it, and on the earth itself. Our planet, and future generations, will thank us.