Environmentalist Suzuki to quit spotlight for simple life
Environmentalist Suzuki to quit spotlight for simple life
I don't know much about Suzuki, but he sounds like a pretty great guy. He's one of the people who championed environmentalist ideas back when they were much less popular. And for that I commend him.
But, I must say I wonder about his desire to "live the simple life" --I didn't get the impression he was doing it to save the planet, it sounded more like he was doing it for personal or spiritual reasons and I wouldn't want to criticize that.
But, why is that so many people feel that one must go out into the woods in order to be "in-touch" with nature? Nature encompasses all living things and their environments, including humans. Why is "the environment" only considered to be places with lots trees and not many people? The environment is the entire planet and the environments that demand our greatest care and respect are those densely populated places where people live-- too often, they are unbalanced places that fail to serve any purpose for life, human or otherwise, except to conduct humans from one place to another, often to "escape" the very kind of place that evolves as a result of trying to escape.
Part of me wonders if "the simple life" is just another kind of escapism. Living in some rural setting may do greater harm to the environment, and in any case, it is a luxury that we simply can't offer to all of the people in the world. We just don't have the resources.
And as a luxury, is it even that compelling? Wouldn't it be more spiritually satisfying to find the power of nature working in all environments?
To each his own, I suppose. But the day will come when we'll find these notions of "purifying nature" absurdly quaint.
I don't know much about Suzuki, but he sounds like a pretty great guy. He's one of the people who championed environmentalist ideas back when they were much less popular. And for that I commend him.
But, I must say I wonder about his desire to "live the simple life" --I didn't get the impression he was doing it to save the planet, it sounded more like he was doing it for personal or spiritual reasons and I wouldn't want to criticize that.
But, why is that so many people feel that one must go out into the woods in order to be "in-touch" with nature? Nature encompasses all living things and their environments, including humans. Why is "the environment" only considered to be places with lots trees and not many people? The environment is the entire planet and the environments that demand our greatest care and respect are those densely populated places where people live-- too often, they are unbalanced places that fail to serve any purpose for life, human or otherwise, except to conduct humans from one place to another, often to "escape" the very kind of place that evolves as a result of trying to escape.
Part of me wonders if "the simple life" is just another kind of escapism. Living in some rural setting may do greater harm to the environment, and in any case, it is a luxury that we simply can't offer to all of the people in the world. We just don't have the resources.
And as a luxury, is it even that compelling? Wouldn't it be more spiritually satisfying to find the power of nature working in all environments?
To each his own, I suppose. But the day will come when we'll find these notions of "purifying nature" absurdly quaint.