By Kameron Smith
Not everything that’s right and good comes easy. Sometimes when you try to simplify everything it can actually make things more complex.
(B)ecoming a sustainable culture is a lot like the natural world we live in today which is the longest lasting thing we have. We begin to look at its cycles and we try to learn from mother earth….
William McDonough and Michael Braungart, architectural designers who do research at the Stanford University and the University of Virginia, explain to us how it is indeed possible for industry and nature to fruitfully coexist. It is crucial that we start trying to live a sustainable life because before we know it we could be running out of the natural resources we are taking for granted today.
Living sustainably is by no means an easy task….
“In a cradle to cradle world- a world of natural cycles powered by the sun- growth is good, waste nutritious, and natures diverse responses to places are the sources of intelligent design.”(McDonough Braungart 95). Here they are talking about how everything is in a unique plan. They say it was “intelligent design” the way the “natural world” runs itself. Nature is such a beautiful running machine that now we are looking at nature’s natural intelligent designs to mentor how we do business. “Instead of seeing nature as a source of raw materials, we see nature as a source of ideas.” (Benyus 38) This tells how that a lot of what we know today we learned from the natural world at one point. If we continue to mimic the natural world all of our products will be more efficient and will produce less harm and waste.
Needs and wants. Today our social society is consumed by the goods produced on the market. We are constantly over consuming trying to keep up with the newest and most fashionable trends. At some point we need to ask ourselves when enough is enough. “If we are totally absorbed in the struggle to accumulate, then our capacity to participate wholeheartedly and enthusiastically in life is diminished.”(Elgin) The more one thinks about it the more it makes sense. Our lives are complicated by the materials that we buy. We then begin to struggle while trying to keep up with the latest trends. To stop this never-ending pattern we must figure out the difference between needs and wants. Needs are things that are essential to our survival while wants are the luxuries that go along with our needs. It is safe to say that we need a place to live but we want that place to be full of big TV’s and a pool with a hot tub. The problem is that our society associates our identities with the things we consume….Our true identity comes from how we treat others and what we can do for others to help them, not by accumulating more….
When we start to work like nature and not against it we will start to see the sustainable and efficient pattern that nature has. These patterns will lead to new innovations in technology and in agriculture. We need to start working for and with the natural world because it is the closest thing to perfection that we have. When we start to take that for granted we will run out of what she has so graciously given us to share.
Work Cited
Benyus, Janie “Mother Nature’s School of design” Choices for Sustainable Living Northwest Earth Institute. Portland, OR: Northwest Earth Institute, 2009. 34-38. Print
Braungart, Micheal and McDonough, William “The Extravagant Gesture” Choices for Sustainable Living Northwest Earth Institute. Portland, OR: Northwest Earth Institute, 2009. 95-97. Print
Elgin, Duane “Simplicity and Consumption” Choices for Sustainable Living Northwest Earth Institute. Portland, OR: Northwest Earth Institute, Print
Lyman, Francesca. “Restoring Nature, Restoring Yourself.” A world of health: connecting people, place and health. 85-86. Print
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma a Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.
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