Abandon hope: Live sustainably just because it's the right thing to do
February 20, 2009Do you "hope" that everyone will see the light and start living more sustainably to save the environment? If so, you may be doing more harm than good.
So say an environmental scientist and an environmental ethicist in a provocative essay in the March 2009 issue of the international journal, The Ecologist. John Vucetich, assistant professor of animal ecology at Michigan Technological University, and Michael Nelson, associate professor of environmental ethics at Michigan State University, challenge the widespread belief that hope can motivate people to solve overwhelming social and environmental problems.
"Is hope a placebo, a distraction, merely sowing the seeds of disillusionment?" they ask, in an opinion piece titled "Abandon Hope." The authors, co-founders and directors of the Conservation Ethics Group, an of environmental ethics consultancy, examine the proper role of hope in environmentalism. They suggest that hope's alternative is not hopelessness or despair, but rather the inherent virtue of "doing the right thing."
For decades, say Vucetich and Nelson, we have been hammered by the ceaseless thunder of messages predicting imminent environmental cataclysm: global climate change, air and water pollution, destruction of wildlife habitat, holes in the ozone. The response of environmentalists—from Al Gore to Jane Goodall—to this persistent message of hopelessness has focused on the need to remain hopeful.
But hope may actually be counter-productive, Vucetich and Nelson suggest. "I have little reason to live sustainably if the only reason to do so is to hope for a sustainable future, because every other message I receive suggests that disaster is guaranteed," they explain.
People are hearing radically contradictory messages:
• Scientists present evidence that profound environmental disaster is imminent.
• It is urgent to live up to an extremely high standard of sustainable living.
• The reason to live sustainably is that doing so gives hope for averting disaster.
• Yet disaster is inevitable.
"Given a predisposition to mistrust authorities, such contradictions justifiably elicit mistrust," say Vucetich and Nelson.
If hope for averting environmental disaster is not the right reason to live sustainably, what is? The scholars say we must provide people with reasons to live sustainably that are rational and effective, based on virtues rather than consequences. That means equating sustainable living not with hope for a better future, but with basic virtues such as sharing and caring, virtues that we recognize as good in themselves and fundamentally the right way to live in the present, they explain.
One advantage to such an approach is that it can motivate even people who do not believe that we are on the brink of environmental disaster, Vucetich and Nelson point out. It also clarifies the connection between environmental and social problems, a connection many people fail to grasp.
"Instead of hope, we need to provide young people with reasons to live sustainably that are rational and effective," they say. "We need to lift up examples of sustainable living motivated by virtue more than by a dubious belief that such actions will avert environmental disaster."
Source: Michigan Technological University
-
Snow leopard population discovered in Afghanistan
Jul 13, 2011 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
House built from a passion for green
Jun 13, 2011 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
-
Journey to the center of the Amazon
May 05, 2011 |
not rated yet |
2
-
New free, hands-on tool supports sustainable living choices
Feb 22, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
In autism, gene findings may help explain biology, guide drug discovery
Feb 07, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (30) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Discrepancy between oxygen and carbon-dioxide levels
11 hours ago
-
where gems are found in the world
14 hours ago
-
Wind Waves in Reservoir ~ Wind run-up and Wind set-up
Feb 08, 2012
-
Balance of oxygen in the atmosphere
Feb 01, 2012
-
The case for a methanol-based economy
Jan 30, 2012
-
Weather in a rotating cylinder
Jan 25, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - Earth
More news stories
Mars Science Laboratory computer issue resolved
(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers have found the root cause of a computer reset that occurred two months ago on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and have determined how to correct it.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
13 minutes ago |
not rated yet |
0
|
Putin receives 'prehistoric' water from Antarctic lake
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was given a water sample Friday taken from a pristine lake hidden under Antarctic ice for over a million years, after Russian scientists drilled down to its surface.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
19 minutes ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
Rockot to launch two Sentinel satellites
ESA and Eurockot today signed contracts for launching two ESA satellites: Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-3A will fly in 2013 on Rockot vehicles from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia for Europes GMES ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
15 minutes ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
Probing a link from Sahara dust to climate change
Qilong Min, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate and Professor with the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC) at the University at Albany is developing innovative ways to measure how dust in the Sahara Desert ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
8 minutes ago |
not rated yet |
0
Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago
(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...
New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission
Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. Theyre a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel such as an optical fiber o ...
A frank discussion of the power law and linking correlation to causation
(PhysOrg.com) -- Michael Stumpf a mathematics professor at Imperial College in London, and Mason Porter a lecturer at Oxford have teamed together to write and publish a perspective piece in Science regarding the in ...
Advanced power-grid model finds low-cost, low-carbon future in West
(PhysOrg.com) -- The least expensive way for the Western U.S. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to help prevent the worst consequences of global warming is to replace coal with renewable and other ...
Small modular reactor design could be a 'SUPERSTAR'
(PhysOrg.com) -- Though most of today's nuclear reactors are cooled by water, we've long known that there are alternatives; in fact, the world's first nuclear-powered electricity in 1951 came from a reactor ...
High school students test best with 7 hours' rest
(Medical Xpress) -- Whether or not you know any high school students that actually get nine hours of sleep each night, thats what federal guidelines currently prescribe.
The question of life in the ancient world
Theres a general feeling that we dont get the Greeks ancient or modern. Many, including heads of state like Angela Merkel, visibly shake their head in exasperation, rightly or wrongly, at ...
Feb 20, 2009
Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
Feb 20, 2009
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
now all we need is for someone to come up with a real alternative so people can live sustainably... still waiting.
Feb 20, 2009
Rank: 4.8 / 5 (5)
The only way to force another kind of behavior on human beings is to create conditions of oppression or artificial scarcity. So far, the longest period of time such a government has existed in modern times is 70 years or so.
Feb 20, 2009
Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
When have people done something because it was rational? You have to engage their self-interest.
Feb 20, 2009
Rank: not rated yet
Feb 27, 2009
Rank: 2 / 5 (1)
Mar 02, 2009
Rank: not rated yet
Not when it comes to feeding or using resources. Generally speaking, the tendency of all life is to acquire what is easiest to obtain, and to gain as much as possible for the least amount of effort.
Do you claim this is not an accurate description of how life operates? What is yours?