Simple Prosperity

by David Wann

  Two monumental Chinese landmarks are now visible from space—the Great Wall of China and the Great Mall of China. Covering an area more than 5 million square feet, the “Golden Resources Mall” is twice the size of our huge Mall of America in Minnesota, a popular vacation destination for devout consumers. A recent news story offers clear evidence that affluenza has now infected one of the world’s oldest cultures: A Chinese father was under considerable consumer pressure from his daughter; becoming so desperate to silence her whining, he spent 5,000 yuan ($625) on ten school bags and twenty Barbie dolls. According to the Xinhua news agency story, the father’s shopping sprees ended up frightening his daughter, who stopped making gift demands. But the wasted money angered his wife, who threatened to divorce him. Partly as a result of its one-child policy of past decades, China is filled with pampered kids known as “little emperors.” Who knows what kind of pent-up consumer demand lurks in these ranks?

  Certainly, China’s “progress,” like America’s, puts the rest of the world at risk. China is now by far the world’s biggest driver of rain forest destruction, says a recent Greenpeace report. Nearly one-half of the tropical hardwood logs shipped from the world’s threatened rain forests are headed for China. And the footprints from those rain forests lead through China right to America’s doorstep; as fast as China manufactures products made from wood, American consumers buy them. Wal-Mart, which in 2006 generated about 2 percent of the U.S. GDP, now imports $19 billion a year of Chinese products, selling them at prices we can’t refuse.14

  Feeling a bit overwhelmed by Brown’s comments, I ask him for a bit of good news. I’m sure he gets that question a lot, and he quickly replies, “With each wind farm, rooftop solar panel, paper-recycling facility, bicycle path, and reforestation program, we move closer to an economy that can sustain economic progress,” he says. “Change can happen very quickly. For example, the Berlin Wall coming down was essentially a bloodless political revolution; there were no articles in political science journals in the 1980s that said, ‘Hey, keep an eye on Eastern Europe, big change is coming there.’ But one morning people woke up and realized the great communist experiment was over.

  “Or what if we’d been sitting together ten years ago and I’d said, ‘I think that the tobacco industry is going to cave’? It was the most powerful lobby in Washington. It controlled congressional committee chairs. But there was a steady flow of articles on smoking and health over a period of a few decades, along with persistent denial. The industry just lost its credibility. Another example is World War Two. If you did a poll on December 6, 1941, that asked, ‘Do you think we should get involved in the war?’ probably eighty-five percent would have said, ‘Nothing doing—we’re not going to make that mistake again,’ and then twenty-four hours later, everything changed.’”

  He gives me a long list of reasons to be hopeful: “Iceland is experimenting with what it might mean to be a ‘hydrogen economy,’ where energy would be generated with fuel cells and by direct combustion of hydrogen, that produces water vapor as a by-product. Denmark, Germany, and Spain are world leaders in wind-generated electricity, with Denmark now meeting eighteen percent of its electrical needs from wind. Ontario, Canada, is emerging as a leader in phasing out coal; the province plans to replace its five coal-fired power plants with natural gas-fired turbines, wind farms, and gains in efficiency. The resulting reduction in CO2 emissions in Ontario will be equivalent to taking four million cars off the road.”

  Israel leads the world in the efficient use of water, he explains; the United States is expert at stabilizing soil, reducing soil erosion by 40 percent in less than two decades. Japan is a world leader in the production of solar cells; and, in the Netherlands, 40 percent of all trips are on bicycles, demonstrating that, with good planning and design, bikes can be a viable alternative to cars. Brown recalls a stay in the Dutch college town of Utrecht, where he gave a presentation. “From my hotel room, I looked down on streets that were mostly one-way—intentionally inconvenient for cars—and I did a vehicle count. For each car, I counted about nineteen bicycles. From there, I flew directly to Seoul, Korea. Again, I was in a hotel in a horrible downtown area of Korea, and there was a thoroughfare in front of the hotel. I was there two or three days before I saw a single bicycle. Korea has been so driven on creating a modern economy, they think what they have just built is the future, but it’s not.

  “If the United States over the next decade were to shift its whole automobile fleet to highly efficient gas-electric hybrid engines with efficiencies comparable to today’s Toyota Prius, the country could easily cut gasoline use in half,” he said. “The potential for cutting coal use and carbon emissions by developing wind resources to generate electricity also has enormous potential. By 2020, half of Europe’s four hundred million people are projected to get their residential electricity from wind.”

  We Are Trained for This!

  Do Americans have the guts to become a joyful, moderate culture? Of course we do. Although the United States currently consumes a fourth of the world’s oil and even larger percentages of resources like paper and aluminum, we still have the memory of frugality from Depression and World War II days. After being reluctantly drawn into the war, the entire U.S. economy adapted its cultural concept. In this stunningly swift conversion of American industry, automobile factories converted to tank and armored car factories, a merry-go-round factory made gun-mounts, and a corset manufacturer made grenade belts. Strategic goods like tires, gasoline, fuel oil, and sugar were rationed beginning in 1942, and incredibly, the production and sale of cars and trucks for private use was banned, along with driving just for pleasure. Highway construction stopped. Americans salvaged tin cans, bottles, bits of rubber, and waste paper. About twenty million Americans produced two-fifths of the nation’s vegetable produce in their Victory Gardens. Both on the war front and home front, there was an elevated feeling of camaraderie. Women marched into the factories by the millions to build aircraft and operate large cranes. A poster released by the Office of War Information stated simply, “Do with less so they’ll have enough,” and we did, temporarily.15

  Now, the time for a permanent culture shift has come, powered by renewable energy sources, the elimination of waste, and a reawakened population of citizens. I believe the best measure of a civilization is how well it can absorb disruption and keep going; the same might be said of individuals. One poignant example is Victor Frankl, a physician and psychiatrist imprisoned during World War II in Auschwitz. In Love and Survival, Dean Ornish writes, “Frankl wondered why some people survived and others did not. Some who were relatively young and healthy seemed to give up and often died soon thereafter; others who were old, frail, and quite sick were able to survive and function despite overwhelming odds. He noticed that their survival was much less a factor of age or infirmity than their ability to find a sense of meaning in the midst of this horrible experience. Some people wanted to live to bear witness; others for love—to help a parent or spouse or child who was there with them …”16

  How to Support the Transition to a Moderate, Sustainable Society

  These initiatives and others like them can counteract the formidable trends discussed in this book, and create a world less reliant on finite resources, less focused on money.

  • Reduce U.S. energy consumption per capita by half—to levels equivalent to Italian and German energy consumption. Changes in lifestyle will help: Eat less meat (since it “costs” so much energy to produce); live in pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods; consume fewer things but better things, since consumer goods are filled with “hidden” energy.

  • Implement high-leverage policy changes already proven in EU countries, such as Extended Producer Responsibility (“Take-Back Laws”), which requires manufacturers to recycle/refurbish products at the end of their lives; and Tax Shift policies, which place economic burden on undesirable outcomes such as energy consumption, pollution, and inefficient technology. For example, Sweden’s tax shift lowered in
come taxes but increased energy taxes. Revitalize deposit systems for containers and incentives for reusable packaging.

  • Invest in “socially responsible” companies and mutual funds that enable you to make a good return while aligning your portfolio with your personal values. Participate in shareholder advocacy and community investment opportunities. For more information, see www.socialinvest.org.

  • Support more useful ways of measuring wealth and well-being than GDP, which includes the “bads” with the goods and services and thus shows only how much money was spent, not how well it was spent. For example, the Genuine Progress Indicator, a tool devised by the group Redefining Progress, shows how we’re really doing. At the personal scale, consider self-evaluation measurements that report “real wealth” such as creativity, connection, and care-taking.

  • Support and subsidize alternative transportation that’s less energy intensive, for example, revitalize the train industry for both passenger and freight use. Optimize train performance with high speed and Maglev design. Continue to build bike trails, separate from roads, which enable access to shopping, commuting, and travel within a metro area. Support the United States’ becoming a world leader in automobile efficiency.

  • Support scientific research to make the transition from petrochemistry to “phytochemistry” (based on plants). In the manufacture of plastics, fertilizers, fabrics, and medicines, for instance, transition from a hydrocarbon economy to a carbohydrate economy. Algae may be a key material of the future.

  • Support a diversity of solutions in energy, transportation, manufacturing, and other industries so that regional strengths are optimized. For example, support wind-generated electricity in those regions with the best wind potentials. Generate renewable energy at the community and rooftop scale; recycle water and solid wastes at the local level, too.

  • Support sustainable agriculture that maintains the health of the soil and prevents erosion with techniques such as cover crops, crop rotation, and composting to increase the organic content of the soil, which increases its water retention and nutrient value per unit of food.

  • Begin the inevitable transition to a national wastewater strategy that doesn’t waste the nutrients that are now flushed down the drains of homes and small industries. At a minimum, cities should separate wastewater containing toxic materials from wastewater containing sewage and biological waste. At best, they should optimize the use of both neighborhood scale “living machines” that purify water in a greenhouse setting, and computer-controlled compost toilets that convert wastes into fertilizer.

  • Support the construction of mixed-use neighborhoods that reduce consumption and increase satisfaction. Support the gradual transformation of suburbia to a mosaic of villages and communities in a metropolitan setting.

  • Support social change that reduces the linkage between security and the need for higher incomes. For example, support a national health-care system that uncouples health care from employment. Support workplace legislation to create more part-time jobs that have prorated benefits.

  • Support the creation at the regional scale of wildlife corridors, integrated private land conservancy strategies, and open space strategies at the local and county level.

  • Support increased U.S. participation in the United Nations, to ensure an equal voice in developing nations as well as global consensus on environmental issues.

  If humans like Frankl are capable of enduring such nightmares, why do so many Americans refuse to even acknowledge the challenges we face? From the top of the hill, gazing at a commanding view, they ask, “Why should we be expected to give up our 300-horsepower cars, our homes that are large enough to shelter two hundred people, and personal diets that a hundred could survive on?” I think the most persuasive argument is that in each case, moderation feels better than excess, when all values are considered. Not only can we feel better about ourselves but we’ll get daily dividends from a natural world on the rebound: cleaner air, happier nonhuman Earth mates, and a stable, dependable climate. Think about it—would you rather have an expensive SUV or a world that takes care of our kids? A McMansion, or a home in a much larger sense—that resonates with birdcalls, beaver dams, and iridescent dragonflies? A diet of refined powders and tasteless produce or a society whose citizens are full of vitality, hope, and purpose?

  I believe that as individuals and as a culture, we long for a slower, saner world—less transfixed by money and stuff. As visionary Paul Hawken notes, our lives are often played out by the rhythm of capital, whizzing around the planet at the speed of a trillion dollars a day. But other rhythms are more comfortable, more compelling. “What makes life worthy and allows civilizations to endure are all the things that have “bad” payback under commercial rules: infrastructure, universities, temples, poetry, choirs, literature, language, museums, terraced fields, long marriages, line dancing, and art,” says Hawken. “Commerce moves faster and requires the governance of politics, art, culture, and nature, to slow it down; to make it pay attention to people and place. In between culture and business is governance—faster than culture, slower than commerce. At the heart, the slowest chronology is earth, nature, the web of life. As ephemeral as it may seem, it is the slowest clock ticking, always there, responding to long, ancient evolutionary cycles that are beyond civilization.”17

  By slowing down to the speed of life, a new American lifestyle—which reveres the Earth as a Sacred Garden—can save the pieces, allowing nature and culture to regenerate on their own terms. The high-consumption lifestyle we lead will change dramatically in the years to come, whether we choose it or are chosen by it. The problem isn’t just one of high incomes and ego-trips—those are the least of our problems. Because of resource shortages, a reduced capacity of the environment to clean up after us, an epidemic of debt and possible foreclosure by foreign lenders, a longing for meaning and purpose, and a deep-seated instinct for ecological stability, we’ll invent a more culturally abundant lifestyle, as many civilizations have before us.

  The secret of success at the national and global scale is not really a secret; it’s in plain sight, and it’s called moderation. We’ll get more value from less stuff and better stuff, by tapping into riches like quality products, brilliant design and redesign of cities and towns, cultural and aesthetic greatness, curiosity and fascination about how nature really works, cooperation with coworkers and neighbors, and generosity, just because it feels right. Like former addicts who walk victoriously away from the cliff, we’ll choose to experience and embrace life rather than try to dominate it. Although the pace and density of our world are often confusing, we are very certain about some things. For example, we know we want more meaning in our lives; we know we want to use logic that’s based on reality (what I call biologic) rather than obsolete rules and policies. We’ve always loved the idea of rising to the occasion, of being heroes in the last minutes of a game. We’ve practiced heroism for many thousands of years in our myths and scriptures. We’re ready, in these most critical times, to continue the transition—individually and culturally—from the “love of consumption” to the “love of life.”

  Coauthor

  Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic

  (Berrett-Koehler)

  Superbia: 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods

  (New Society Press)

  Contributor

  Take Back Your Time

  (Berrett-Koehler)

  Poetry

  Log Rhythms

  (North Atlantic Books)

  Nonfiction

  Biologic: Environmental Protection by Design

  (Johnson Books)

  Deep Design: Pathways to a Livable Future

  (Island Press)

  The Zen of Gardening in the High & Arid West

  (Fulcrum Publishing)

  Reinventing Community: Stories from the Walkways of Cohousing

  (Fulcrum Publishing)

  Notes

  Chapter 1. Taking Stock

&nbs
p; 1 Anthony C. Woodbury, “What Is an Endangered Language?” Linguistic Society of America, http://lsadc.org/info/ling-faqs-endanger.cfm.

  2 Steven Greenhouse and David Leonhardt, “Real Wages Fail to Match a Rise in Productivity” August 28, 2006, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/business/28wages.html?th&emc=th.

  3 Robert J. Samuelson, “The Next Economy,” Washington Post, December 29, 2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32610-2004Dec28.html, A19.

  4 “Consumer Resistance to Marketing Reaches All-Time High; Marketing Productivity Plummets, According to Yankelovich Study,” Yankelovich press release, April 15, 2004, http://www.yankelovich.com/.

  5 “From War Zones to Shopping Malls: New Study Reveals Deadly Link Between Consumer Demand and Third World Resource Wars,” Worldwatch Press release about Michael Renner book, The “Anatomy of Resource Wars,” October 17, 2002, http://www.worldwatch.org.

  6 Paul Salopek, “The Pay Zone,” Chicago Tribune, July 29, 2006, http://www.chicagotribune.com/.

  7 Lester R. Brown, Plan B Book Byte 2006-6, May 5, 2006, http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/Seg/PB2ch02_ss2.htm.