Hawthorn Hill: Try conservation over consumption

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October 30, 2009

Hawthorn Hill: Try conservation over consumption

Anonymous The Cooperstown Crier Fri Oct 30, 2009, 12:24 PM EDT

It would be nice to forget about the world while walking back country roads.

Some days it is more possible than others. Today was a particularly beautiful day. There is a bank of oak trees set against a nearby hillside whose burnt orange leaves remind me of these opening lines in John Keats's poem Endymion: ``A thing of beauty is a joy fore ever:/Its loveliness increases; it will never/ Pass into nothingness.’’ Of course, the leaves will eventually fall to the ground, leaving the branches bare until next spring.

But I think what Keats means is that the tree’s loss is our gain. The image remains in memory and can never be erased. In fact, it gains in beauty and significance over time. It will be helped by the few acorns that I picked up, slipped into my jacket pocket, and which now sit atop my study windowsill.

As I sauntered down the road a red-tailed hawk soared in ever widening concentric circles above me and I was reminded again of the infinite array of wonders this beautiful earth offers up to us, no questions asked.

Unfortunately, an insistent voice inside that I could not quell started listing some of the more unpleasant indignities against the planet that our species has managed to commit. The worst part of it is that we seem hell bent on doing these things despite incontrovertible evidence that clearly points out the inescapable consequences of our actions. But that should not be much of a surprise, since consequences have never seemed to matter much when it comes to sating our thirst for more and more things.

The debate over natural gas drilling is a case in point. Most of the discussion surrounding this volatile issue focuses on the process. How can it be done safely? How can we protect our wells, aquifers, lakes, and streams from chemical pollution? What safeguards can be put in place to safeguard the public’s health and well being?

How can we treat the millions of gallons of toxic wastewater so it can be safely disposed of (if that is possible; the bad stuff has to go somewhere?) What about damage to infrastructure, noise pollution, etc.?

The questions are many and the answers are varied, often confusing, and certainly complicated.

But my question is this: why are we not talking about conservation, about ways in which each of us can reduce our energy needs so that these invasions of the earth’s crust need not occur in the first place. Unlike some of my environmentally conscious friends, I expect that drilling will take place and that the best we can hope for is the establishment of procedures and regulations that answer the questions I have posed and the countless others.

The driving force, as always, is our incessant thirst for more and more energy, no matter the environmental, aesthetic, or moral consequences. As I have pointed out elsewhere, what is needed is a new cultural paradigm in this country, one that privileges conservation rather than consumption.

There is reason to be hopeful. There is a lot of good work going on, both at the individual and the federal level. We just need more of it. My hope is that over not too long a swath of time the paradigm shift required will occur.

There was a time when there would be no reason to question the perpetual existence of the beautiful.

Even that will be in doubt unless we are willing to change our ways. The promise of enduring joy is in our hands.