By Linda Mason Hunter

© 2006 Linda Mason Hunter.  May not be reprinted without written permission of the author.

Stars shone brightly over Des Moines, Iowa (my hometown) the end of September. Five “stars” in the green galaxy gave lectures to nearly sold-out crowds. Clearly, we’re reaching a tipping point here, with more and more people becoming interested in living green.

Visitors to the city included Dr. William F. Rees (human ecologist, Director of the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, and author of Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth); Sarah Susanka (architect and best-selling author of the Not So Big House series); Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (political activists and founders of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream), and David Korten (self-described “outraged citizen” and author of The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community).

It was exciting for me, after working in the field for 20 years, to see normally taciturn Midwesterners enthusiastic and inspired by these courageous thinkers. They certainly inspired me to incorporate new ideas into my life and work. Since Dr. Rees was the first speaker I heard that week, and since he so eloquently addresses the issue of global warming (the most critical issue of our time), his ideas are the subject of my first “Rantz” column.

According to Dr. Rees, human beings consume so much of the planet’s natural resources we need the equivalent of four more earths to keep up with our lifestyles. It doesn’t take a genius to realize such unbridled consumption is inherently unsustainable.

It comes as no surprise that Americans are the most wasteful. While we comprise 4.6% of the world’s population, we consume 25% of the planet’s resources. Americans consume ten times more than we did 40 years ago.

The poorest countries need one acre per capita to live. The world average is 5.4 acres per capita. Each person living in the U.S. needs 25 acres—the highest per capita in the world.

Such mindless consumption puts the planet on a “plague trajectory” rushing headlong to ruin, if not outright extinction. We’ve seen this train wreck coming for a long time. The Union of World Scientists issued a warning to humanity in 1992, but few took it seriously. Rees, along with other prominent scientists, believe we have less than 20 years to right our course.

Alarming statistics confirm Rees arguments, such as:

	Ninety percent of fish species used as food have been taken out of our oceans and waterways in the last 50 years.
	The current rate of species extinction is 1,000 times the pre-industrial rate.
	In the last 100 years there has been a six-fold increase in human population on earth. The explosion in numbers directly corresponds with the explosion of fossil fuel use.
	The world’s richest 50 people have a combined income greater than the poorest 416 million people. These numbers get worse every year.

This argument makes a lot of sense. Economic expansion is not the answer. It only consumes more of the earth’s resources. Technology isn’t the answer, either. Such “techno-industrial hubris” only helps us get better at exploiting the earth, allowing the planet to be consumed from within.

What we need is a new development myth, shifting away from competition to cooperation, what Rees calls “enlightened rationality.” Such a philosophy offers hope, but we’d better hurry. The time for talking is past. Now is the time for action.

The answer isn’t complicated. It’s up to each one of us to become more efficient in our daily lives. The three areas of greatest concern are:

1. Transportation (how we get from place to place)

2. Food (what we eat and where it comes from is a huge factor, the way we "transport petroleum into food," explains Rees)

3. Space/Water Heating and Cooling (buildings account for 40% of energy consumption)

The old myth of unlimited growth alienates man from nature. To live sustainably we must respect nature and live by its rules. We must walk softly, leaving as small a footprint as possible.