McKibben's Podcast and Bioregional Quiz

            Bill McKibben’s Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet discusses how the Earth has been altered in the course of history. It also addresses the fact that the planet can no longer support the demands of the rapidly expanding population, and the need for a solution. McKibben notes, “Relentless growth is fundamentally altering the environment and our ability to live in it, and that maintenance of wealth and resources instead of expansion must be society’s new driver.” By focusing on only growth, the nation is continuing to deplete the planet of valuable resources, which is doing nothing but harming both the population and the planet more.

 Over the years, there have been copious amounts of changes in the Earth. The seasons progress differently, the annual amount of rainfall has changed, and meteorological tropics have expanded two degrees both north and south. Additionally, the amount of food per capita has gotten smaller, along with grain per capita, and the catch of fish is dwindling.

Despite the obviously drastic changes in the planet, the majority of the Earth’s population is refusing to find more environmentally friendly methods of doing things. In America, this is primarily due to problems with the economy.  Citizens are concerned that any true effort to create a sustainable plan will cause the nation to plunge further into debt.  In contrast, the places that are trying to find solutions have not been very successful. The Chinese have recently proposed that by the year 2020, there will be a forty percent reduction in the country’s GDP, and everything produced will use approximately forty percent less energy. Although this is a step in the right direction, this method will produce more carbon dioxide.

Perhaps this lack of interest in finding sustainable methods of living comes from the astounding scarcity of bioregional knowledge. Citizens do not know much about the different regions, and therefore are unable to comprehend the negative effects that have been made on the planet. If this does not change, then there can be no progress made. The world should take McKibben’s advice and “Change the price of energy to reflect the damage it does to the environment,” therefore creating a better sense of the repercussions of mankind’s actions.

McKibben also suggested that the best option for the human race is to rely on “low-input agriculture,” therefore providing the population with jobs, security, stability and food. Currently, there are twice as many prisoners than there are farmers in America. With such a statistic, providing local foods and cutting down on importing becomes extremely difficult, which means slowing down the use of fossil fuels becomes difficult.

 The world needs to focus less on individual wealth, and more on the world as a whole. The world will make considerably more progress if a “plough horse” method is upheld, and individual wealth becomes overshadowed by general well being.