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Is Consumerism Consuming our Health and Wellbeing?

By Phil Golding (A Psychosynthesis Approach to Therapy and Self-Realization )

The article explores the way our present ethics of consumerism effect our society and ourselves as individuals. As a psychotherapist and personal development instructor, I am very aware of how essential a healthy and sustainable lifestyle is to maintaining good personal health and wellbeing. I am also aware that the world, via media and communications systems, is getting closer and closer to our doorstep. Continually being confronted with the poverty and injustice around the world brings us all down emotionally and economically. Our society now needs to be considered as the whole world, not just our little corner of it. However, it is this little corner that we live in so I want to start by comparing what are common Australian values to what I see as the values of the consumer industry. What is important to consider though is consumer ethics and the world trade system that feeds it is creating, keeping in place and increasing world inequality, which is pulling us all down. Bare in mind that this is my own informed opinion, and not necessarily information taken from any particular university study, for example. The purpose of the article is to prompt your thinking and open your mind to certain issues, ways of looking at those issues and some possible solutions, for the sake of our sustainable health and wellbeing.

Values of Australian Society

Values of Consumer Society

Some Consequences of the Consumer Society

Rapid advance of technology that goes nowhere
The advance is so rapid that it is almost impossible to keep up with. Much, if not most of the technology goes toward making things that we don't really need. This rapid advance does not essentially serve quality of life-it exists to serve consumerism. This constitutes a huge waste of resources and knowledge when dire global problems are crying out for these resources and knowledge. This advance does virtually nothing to aid underdeveloped countries and instead helps to widen the gap between rich and poor. Technology was supposed to save us so much time, particularly computers. We were now supposed to have so much leisure time-at least that is what I was told by the experts when I was a child. What happened?

Poor public health
Due to unreasonable work hours and demands, few people have any real quality time for themselves. As a result of being time poor, people end up running on empty. The rat-race creates what is commonly called industrial disease, which could be regarded as the world's number one killer.

How this disease takes hold
Being time poor means that we don't have time for our children. We don't have time to learn how to be great parents (why would we want anything less for our children-the future of our society). Parents are stressed and take it out on one another and their children. Parents have no time to learn a better way. Parents were children themselves of the consumer society. Therefore they have few genuinely effective values that enable them to cope with their emotions and even less skills to master them. Children end up believing that more material things will make them happy. Their demands drive their parents to work harder. Parents feel guilty if their children don't get the "best", which ends up not being the best for the child's real health and wellbeing at all. The cycle is perpetuated due to wrong values and poor mentoring of children.

People have no time to process their stress related emotional backlog. They have no time to learn how to manage stress. They have no time to learn how to have a relationship. They have no time to really stop and think of what is really important in life. If this emotional backlog is not regularly released, or better still, prevented from occurring in the first place through having more time and better self-mastery, then mental, emotion and physical disease in various forms sets in. The individual's mind and body begins to break down.

People have no time to eat properly. Fast food is a major part of the consumer society, again with little thought to long-term consequences. We don't even know what we are supposed to eat. People have no time to exercise properly. Do we spend a fortune on home theater systems because we are too tired to do anything else?

Even the drug industry is part of the consumer society. Once again profit dictates drug company policy and research. Methods and approaches to mind/body health care that do not involve drugs do not get funding. For example, in most cases, depression requires no drugs in order to be cured. It requires loving kindness, education and self-acceptance on a significant level. I personally suffered chronic depression for many years in my teens early adulthood. I completely cured this debilitating malady without a single pill. I now help others do the same. Children are taught that drugs are going to make them feel better and give them some sort of fulfillment. Just watch the TV ads or go to the doctor. What incredible suffering this belief causes! The tragedy of all this is that the cure for most maladies is right in one's own heart-which is not very profitable-or so we think.

Some examples of industrial disease
Child abuse is on the rise. The divorce rate continues unabated. Cancer is now likened to an epidemic (with still no really effective treatment, not to mention prevention). Heart disease continues unabated despite better treatment (which is not prevention). Depression and Suicide rate continues unabated. The health system is cracking at the seams.

Distorted values are harming our society
It is taught from infancy up, from many levels of society, that the more material things you have, the happier you will be. We don't face the fact that we are no happier than 60 years ago before consumerism started as a way of life for the general public.

Loveless/Godless competition
Some prominent Western leaders claim to be Christians and who espouse Christian values, but I find it hard to hear such values truly being spoken by such people, or see them being implemented. I have always thought that Christ taught Love, Compassion, Forgiveness, Wise discernment etc. (I am not a Christian in the traditional sense, so perhaps I am mistaken). What I have heard is self-righteous moralism coming from men's egos and the values of a loveless and Godless competition-based consumerism. As far as I can see, consumerism, and the economics of this destructive approach to life has become the god that we are supposed to worship.

Competition is a wasteful approach to life. Because the consumerism ethic lacks real human values, its consequences are largely destructive. We are told that competition makes us stronger and aids our evolution. There is perhaps some truth in that, but it is a very inefficient way to operate for one very basic reason. In a competition, someone wins and someone loses. Where social structures and economies are concerned, the winners inevitably hoard the spoils, while the losers go needy and become a weight on the system. This imbalance impedes everybody's growth due to greed, exploitation, poverty, crime and stress created ill health (which could be said creates all ill health). It is said that this is simply natural survival of the fittest. This might be fine for the animal kingdom, but it is not fit for human beings who have the capacity to be truly conscious and to therefore live by a far higher law of nature.

Man against man
In the name of competition we are pulling each other down. In order to protect profits and power, technology and knowledge is not shared The answer to all of our economic, social, energy and environmental problems have already been solved. The people with this knowledge are out there. Where is the system of world-wide cooperation that provides for this knowledge to be acknowledged, collected, shared and then implemented? We could have thousands of minds working together on the same problem as a coordinated body. Imagine the outcomes.

A prime example of this, out of thousands that could be listed, is the story of Nicola Tesla, who was in the prime of his work in the 1920's and 1930's. Tesla was a genius in the same stature as Einstein (it is interesting that he is not a household name). He was responsible for the electricity we use today, as well as radio and radar and much more. He literally changed the world, but he could have done so much more if he was given the chance. Like Einstein, Tesla was a great humanitarian. As part of his research he was looking for a way to provide clean, free and limitless power for everybody. For Tesla, this was not a pipe dream. He had the ability to make this a reality, so advanced was his knowledge. However, seeing that they could not make vast profits out of this grand vision, his financial backers pulled out. Further more, instead of this technology being made available to the public and the wider scientific community after Tesla's death, it was hidden away and taken over by the military. Only now is his more advanced theories coming to light, unlike Einstein's more advanced theories, which were always in the public eye.

World trade serves consumerism, not people
The exporting of rural produce around the world is a good example. Poor countries are often forced by major corporations into growing a large amount of one crop. These people are kept on a knife edge economically because of the low price they get for their produce. As soon as the market changes, their crop is suddenly not so in demand. They are left with no means to support themselves, a crop that they can't use themselves and no means to diversify. This happened recently in an area of India. A whole region was impoverished. Many farmers were bankrupted and there were many suicides. Even Australia's farming community is continually being damaged by this competition/consumerism mentality. Also, food that is grown for export is forced into a mass production situation that is bad for the environment and produces poor nutrient value produce. Our supermarkets and variety stores are now filled with products made my exploited labour. It is like slavery all over again in a different form. Now we don't even have to ship the slaves out of their own countries. How can this injustice not pull us all down?

Consumer values forced onto the world
Just like the old forms of exploitation, consumerism is being forced onto communities without consideration for the people of those communities. These people experience the highly seductive and yet insidiously negative effects on their communities, such as with the introduction of products like Coca Cola and other fast foods that are controlled by multinational companies. Such products do not truly benefit the people. The only purpose of this exercise is to create profit for the multinational companies. It is not surprising that such unethical practices, that are supported by Western government policy, create increasing resentment and extremism. Intelligent thinking people know when they are being used. Anger is a natural response to this.

Incredible amount of waste
Most of the material resources that are used up in the name of consumerism are not recycled. Most of what is dumped back into the environment is done so inappropriately. All in the name of profits, of course. You would be amazed at the resources that are used to just make one tin can to the point where it is delivered to the food processing factory.

Incredible amount of pollution
The increasingly rapid rise in pollution, not just in the atmosphere, has only just begun. Most countries of the world that have most of the population of the world haven't even got their industrial machines cranked up yet. What is worse, they are all keen to make all the same mistakes that we are making, all in the name of profit. The values of consumerism encourages the wholesale destruction of our environment with no thought to long-term consequences, and then denies this fact. The short-sightedness of it all is breathtaking.

Education controlled by consumerism
Most of our education system and most of what is taught is geared towards perpetuating the narrow values of consumerism and its industrial machine. Very little is geared toward real effective human values. Where are the subjects on communication, goodwill and cooperation, self-esteem, emotional awareness, parenting. Wouldn't it be wise to have this as a major part of the teaching program right from the start? What about compulsory parenting class for teenagers? A large proportion of our population have little to no idea how to parent children. The rest of us just stumbles through thinking that we know or are too proud to admit that we don't? Should we leave such things to chance? Profits are once again the primary motive for our education system, while the fabric of our society is coming apart.

Disconnection from nature
The values of consumerism encourage a disconnection from and an ignorance of nature. For example, I am a member of the Men's Health and Wellbeing Association. The men who are attracted to this grass roots organization have often previously suffered or are suffering burn out from being overworked and suffered family breakdown due to little awareness of how to handle or even identify their feelings. We run well-respected group programs and men's festivals. We help men reconnect with themselves, their families and to nature. We teach men self-awareness and emotional maturity. We are just talking about ordinary men here. The organization has for certain prevented many suicides, healed many relationships. Whenever a television station has done a story on our association, the men's feelings are ridiculed and they are portrayed as tree hugging hippies (as though feeling and hugging a tree is a bad thing).

We can't feel connected to nature and to one another and turn a blind eye to the destruction of our environment and our social wellbeing at the same time. When men learn to feel, their eyes open along with their hearts.

How does consumerism values fit with Australian values? It doesn't as far as I can see.

How does this fit with Christian values? Same answer.

Consumerism is self-defeating
As far as I can see, the main aim of consumerism is making profit. If so, why is it looking like costing us more than it has ever acquired?

Responsible Capitalism Versus Irresponsible Capitalism

Irresponsible Capitalism

"live simultaneously within different kinds of orders within different rules - those of the markets and those of the family. We must be ruthlessly self-interested in the market and sweetly caring in the family; greedy at work and selfless at home …" Hayek (the economist whose philosophy is behind the policies that have driven Irresponsible Capitalism)

How can we be inhuman at work and human at home? How can we switch on and off like this? How can this be done without defiling our very human nature? How can this be done without being intrinsically dishonest to ourselves and our fellow human beings? Isn't work about human relationships as well?

Responsible Capitalism

Responsible Capitalism is the capitalism of goodwill, cooperation and sustainability.
All people are honoured. The economic system is the people. The point of it is to serve all people. The health and wellbeing of all people on all levels are recognized as uncompromisable . Happy, cared for and relaxed people are healthy, creative, motivated, efficient, dedicated, devoted and inspired people. Quantity that is unsustainable is replaced by quality that is eternally sustainable and capable of even more quantity (although happy, emotionally fulfilled people need less, therefore less needs to be produced, which takes stress off the whole equation).

Responsible Capitalism honours and protects the environment
The environment is seen as the very foundation of all the systems. If the environment is honoured and kept in balance, all systems are sustainable - there is no cost to pay in the future. If the policy of all industry is no waste, then all industrial practices will inevitably become ultimately efficient. Of course implementing such a policy will, for a time, disrupt some, or even most, industries, but this is only because these industries have been created using flawed, unsustainable policies and practices. Now we are left to pay the cost. When the environment is honoured and kept balanced, people are healthy. Imagine the savings in health costs alone! Imagine the reduction of suffering!

Some Possible Solutions

The promotion of genuine effective Christian/Universal values
As a psychotherapist and personal development trainer, the most powerful principles that I have found to effect positive change and growth in people are Unconditional Love and Total Personal Responsibility. I help people to start this process by applying these principles to themselves. The only sane way I can see to accept total personal responsibility for oneself is to begin by loving oneself unconditionally. This is responsible self-care , not selfishness. This is opening your heart to your own humanity. This attitude toward oneself effectively cleans out the fears and insecurities of the ego. As a result we naturally start filling up from the inside (in Christian terms it is like accepting Christ into your heart). From this position, loving humanity at large comes naturally. Not only this, one learns to "feel" what is for their highest good in the long term and act on it. The same discernment is then used when viewing one's actions in the world. Everything becomes sacred. My experience has shown me that this approach is effective in dealing with all issues.

As far as I can see, this is what Jesus taught. It is also what Buddha taught. In fact, it is what every genuine master throughout time has taught.

These essential principles can be taught in very simple and subtle ways. When my clients and students gain a sufficient level of understanding of these principles and start practicing them, their lives improve quickly and often dramatically. The secret is the "what's in it for me" factor. That is why I start with self-care. We can't help others effectively when we are running on empty. Running on empty pulls our consciousness down and actually causes selfishness. When we know how to genuinely care for ourselves, we then know how to effectively care for others.

I have found that these essential values are the foundation of all loving and harmonious human behaviour. Such values can be promoted throughout our community in a way that honours all creeds, faiths and cultures. They are fundamental universal values that go straight to the heart. For this to work though, our leaders must be an example. They must lead the way.

Service, not competition
There is a higher approach to life than competition, that if practiced, has the potential of solving all the problems of this world, including the relationship problem, and that is selfless service .

To the ego, being confronted with the idea of selfless service, is a bit like Dracula being confronted with the holy cross! The ego quickly starts backing away. The first thought that leaps into the ego mind is, "But I will miss out!" The ego is constructed out of conditional love. The conditional side of love is not love at all. It is really fear. It is the fear experienced by a small, delicate and vulnerable child who has suffered conditional love, who was judged and ridiculed for making human mistakes, who was emotionally abandoned through no fault of his/her own, who had to lie and pretend in order to try to win the love of those he or she depended on. The ego is born out of confusion and every decision and every action it takes perpetuates and compounds that confusion.

The word "selfless" is a stumbling block in itself. To the ego it tends to mean self-neglect and when the ego tries to live in a selfless way, neglecting itself is what it ends up doing. Neglecting oneself has inevitable negative consequences. These consequences are exactly the same as neglecting a child. A neglected child is not a happy child, and that unhappy child will eventually become a very angry teenager, or if the will is able to suppress the unhappiness in the effort to please others, disease may set in instead.

The true meaning of Selflessness, therefore, cannot mean self-neglect. A clearer term could be "Self-mastered service". This self-mastery is achieved through the ability to care for oneself through the power of one's own greater-consciousness. This practise of self-responsibility naturally and automatically taps into a direct source of limitless universal Love, which then naturally overflows to everyone around us. Our service to others comes from the care we have for ourselves. When we genuinely care for ourselves, we initiate our greater consciousness, which is where we feel a true interconnection with everything else. Nothing of ourselves is depleted in this process. Nor do we need to wait for others to have this same level of self-mastery, because we can sufficiently look after ourselves. However, in line with the law of attraction, what we put into this world, the more of this we will create.

Selfless service flows from the core principles of Unconditional Love and Personal Responsibility. The first step in this process is self-acceptance, which is Unconditional Love of oneself. We become the conscious aware parent of that confused and emotionally wounded child within ourselves. There is no way we can comprehend, least of all practice, selfless service to others until we give selfless service to this needy child within us. When our inner-child is healed to a significant degree, selfless service begins to naturally flow from our open heart. It is the natural mode of being of the greater consciousness.

This is a fact and a reality because Unconditional Love is the eternal Life-Force that naturally channels through an open heart. The more an open heart gives, the more it receives, because this Life-Force of Love is feeding the heart directly. Added to that is the fact that selfless service, when it is genuine, lifts, heals and inspires others. Their hearts inevitably open as well. This type of Love never runs out. It just keeps on increasing as more and more doors to universal Love open into this world of the human mind.

Unconditional Love is also ultimate wisdom. It is heart intelligence-holistic intelligence. It has no trouble seeing the big picture and acting according to the highest good for all. Therefore everyone wins. Nobody loses.

The resources of this world might seem limited, but it is a proven fact that there is enough for everyone if these resources are intelligently managed from a perspective of selfless service. The ego-driven leaders of this world are slowly waking up out of sheer necessity. They are waking up because we are waking up. We are waking up because the consequences of not waking up are becoming too great. We cannot act selfishly (fearfully) as a wife, husband, mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, community member or nation without negative consequences for everyone. Humanity is one big family living in a home called Earth. The sacred principles of Unconditional Love and Personal Responsibility apply at every level.

We can't do selfless service, however, any more than we can do Unconditional Love. In other words we can't intellectually figure it out and then act it out like a sales technique. Academics don't teach it because they can't teach it. It cannot be taught and truly learned in theory. Selfless service is a state of being. An ego just can't figure it out, because it is about a completely different level of consciousness. We can only evolve into it through our honest commitment to live by the highest principles of life, which are Unconditional Love and full Personal Responsibility. Selfless service can only be evolved into it through attempting to live our greater potential every day and by learning from trial and error, the natural human learning process. It must be learnt through personal experience.

Every degree of attainment of this level of consciousness means our life has more joy, peace, courage, wisdom, intimacy, elegant simplicity, meaningful abundance, good health, self-esteem, self-confidence and all the good things that the heart truly desires.

Selfless service is giving without strings attached, while being wise enough to manage the other's confusion with appropriate boundaries. Even if we have to step back from someone else's confusion (inappropriate behaviour), love is never withdrawn. The healing of the world's problems would be inevitable if selfless service became the norm. The tyrants of this world would simply get loved out of existence.

If we are all selflessly serving one another, we are all then pulling together in the same direction. There is no wasted energy. Another term for this is "goodwill and cooperation". This alone is enough to transform this world of human affairs into a paradise of harmony and abundance.

Again, the values to selfless-service that honours oneself always (therefore not communism), is something that can be promoted in the community. It is something that must come from people's free will once they see how wonderfully it will benefit them. It will be demonstrated by the example of those now understand these principles, and there are many, and they are growing. Unfortunately the current system of consumerism does not value selfless service, it instead values selfishness. It our leader truly understood selfless service and were a living example of it and supported others who wished to shine their light in this way, the majority would soon see the wonderful benefits.

Self-sufficient national economies
It is strange that this may seem like a radical idea. However, as far as I can see, the current trade situation does not serve people, it serves the god of consumerism. I suggest that every country focus on becoming self-sufficient as much as possible, particularly where food and other basic necessities are concerned. The production of such things should be brought back to the community. It would be more of a community effort and these products would take on much more meaning and be given much more love. Because food would be grown more locally, and sold locally, the quality would be much higher. After all, we are growing it for ourselves. We are caring for ourselves. Employment would be more meaningful in these areas because one is serving their own community.

This is the same as taking care of one's own family before going out to help our neighbor. This is no different to caring for oneself before we care for our family. This is not about selfishness. This is about self-responsibility. This is about balance and sustainability. Consumerism does not care about you or your family. You only exist to work long and hard so products are produced and sold for profit. People end up running on empty. Despite all the material things they have, they are run down and unfulfilled, because the important things in life like love, community, good health, leisure time, are being neglected.

Export surplus
Only genuine surplus would be exported. Of course certain countries and communities would still specialize in certain products and technology that would be exported. However, the community is always looked after first. Every community, every country, would work towards ensuring that having their basic needs sustainably met is the bottom line.

Import what we genuinely can't produce for real needs
In the same vain, we import what is genuinely needed. So much of our imports are now about consumerism, not people. We don't truly need much of what is imported. We can produce it ourselves. The current system of trade does not care about people. It only cares about profits.

Economies will balance out
Much of what we import are products produced by cheap exploited labour. The system of self-sustainability would lead towards a situation of balance. Each economy would create it's own economic balance where the essential needs were met. Quality of living would naturally rise because poverty would be wiped out. Dignity would rise. Honesty would rise because there would be no more desperation. The economies would not be driven by false values and artificial systems that do not serve people. Inflation would no longer be a factor because a real balance would be achieved. The insatiable need for more, more, more, that consumerism actively promotes would die away because people would be naturally fulfilled by the important things of life.

Sustainable energy use
Because of this balanced and sustainable living practice, far less energy would be used up. Consider the energy that is used up in the name of consumerism simply serving itself. This would probably amount to most of our energy use.

Less impact on environment
Because of a whole ethic of personal responsibility, balance and sustainability, our consideration of the environment would be a central focus of any practice. It would just be obvious. Consumerism does not care about the environment. Maximum production for maximum profit is its only consideration. A sustainable self-responsible self-care community would naturally want to look after its home. Home is sacred.

More efficient use of resources
Therefore, resources would be used far more efficiently because the whole system would be geared toward genuinely caring for everybody. Sustainability would be an obvious consideration. There is a beautiful saying that is going around at the moment,

"We haven't inherited this Earth from our ancestors, we have borrowed it from our children."

This saying puts our minds into a whole new perspective.

More grass roots employment
As I mentioned before, because communities are more self-sustaining, there would be far more meaningful grassroots employment. It creates so much resentment and cynicism when employees are used and driven to work harder and harder by employers who don't care about them. They see their employers grasping at more and more and giving them less and less. Their work has no real meaning and they are not truly valued. In this new system of balance and sustainability, we all work together to serve a higher goal-the common good for all. This is not some ideology imposed on them by some dictator. This comes from their own heart for no other reason than it works. People would experience how, through the principles of unconditional love, personal responsibility and selfless service, every body wins. Everyone ends up having more of all the good and important things in life.

Simpler life-style
Our life-styles would naturally simplify because we are fulfilled by the important things in life. The cheap (yet incredibly costly in the long-term), throw away society that we live in now with its noise, pollution, disconnection and exploitation would be regarded as repugnant and even insane-which it is. We would have and need less material things and be far happier for it.

Because of the ethic of selfless service instead of competition/consumerism, our economy and all aspects of industry and agriculture would run far more efficiently. We would manufacture only what we really need. There would still be more than enough comfort and entertainment. In fact, more people would be more comfortable than ever before.

Because of this natural state of efficiency and fulfilled moderation, our working hours would end up being far less. I can't see anyone needing to work any more than 6 hours per day, for a five day working week, and probably less as time goes by. Imagine the time we would have for family and community. Imagine the time we would have for our own health and wellbeing.

Technology would genuinely serve peoples' health and wellbeing
We would not be turning back the clock technologically. On the contrary, technological time and energy would not be wasted on pointless consumerism. It would be geared towards the highest good for the community and the environment. Because of the values of selfless service, this technology would be shared and developed collectively. Imagine the innovation and the efficiency! It is barely imaginable what could be achieved with this approach to development.

Clean energy, no waste
Our whole economy and community would be built around the ethic of clean energy and zero waste. Image what a beautiful living environment this would create. Of course things would dramatically change but it would not throw us back to the stone age. On the contrary, the technological innovations that would evolve from this would be mind-boggling. Imagine how exiting it would be for the scientific community to work together on such a goal. Most scientists know what selfless service means, and when they are working on something truly meaningful and life-serving, there is nothing that will hold them back. This sort of opportunity is what they live for.

Preventative health
Such a life-style alone would dramatically improve our health. Some of the biggest killers are stress, unhappiness and unfulfillment, feeling disconnected from love and community, pollution, contaminated food, poor quality food, war, crime, unhealthy life-styles. All this would naturally be improved. Instead of the emphasis on the drug and surgery driven cure, which again serves consumerism and not people, most of health care will be about optimal mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. This would take most of the load off the body and prevent most diseases. A good diet of good food would take care of the rest. All this would be far easier to a achieve in a society that is balanced and sustainable and that runs on the values of unconditional love, personal responsibility and selfless service.

Emphasis on integrity, equality and justice
The values of unconditional love, personal responsibility and selfless service would naturally create this atmosphere. This would be a society where all financial dealings are transparent. Everything would be on record for everyone to see. Because loveless/Godless competition would be a thing of the past, there would also be no need for government secrets. Everything would be on the table. The term "public service" would take on a whole new meaning. To be a public servant would be a truly noble thing.

One world government
This may seem like a radical idea in this age of selfishness, paranoia and competition. But then, the United States of America seemed like an outlandish idea once upon a time. In yet, when we realistically look into the future, it is a natural next step.

Each country would become part of a federation, just like states of a country are now. They would still have their autonomy. As I have already pointed out. The system would be geared to ensure that each country and community is self-sustainable as much as appropriately possible. Each country would be serving the whole. Each country would have representation in the world government. Each country would contribute to the international peace keeping force. Of course, the United Nations is the beginning of this inevitable step. A central world government is essential for balance and sustainability, just like it is for the a nation having a federal government. It is also essential for ending all wars and exploitation. All reasonable thinking people now know that humanity is one big family. It is time we face the future and consciously work towards it. We can start by truly respecting and supporting the UN and give it real power in the process.

Conclusion
In order to effectively stop the rot where global warming is concerned, we must all become leaders rather than followers. We talk a lot about reducing greenhouse gases. And yet we continue on with our same old living practices while waiting for someone else to do something about it. Even at government levels there is talk of waiting to see what America does before we act. The balance line of sustainability was passed many decades ago. Few people considered that there even was a line (despite the repeated warnings of those "wacko tree huggers). The emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (just one aspect of environmental damage) is rapidly increasing as developing countries like China and India crank up their industrial machines, all very keen to make all the same mistakes that we did, and are still doing. We are still speeding further and further away from that line of sustainability and deeper and deeper into further increasing the permanent damage to the environment of our planet. Change must happen, and happen fast. There is no question of maybe.

There is absolutely no point in saying that if we act and the others don't then we will be at some disadvantage. When the ship is sinking, the rich sink just as quickly as the poor. In other words, profits are pointless when the environmental systems that sustain industry and life are breaking down. Of course that is not going to happen straight away. We can always leave the problem to our children, but then all they will be able to do is watch as the ship sinks.

The reality is that everyone has to act. There is no getting around that. Whether it is sooner or later, there is absolutely no choice. Those who act first will have the advantage of having technology and expertise to export to those countries that will be slower to act. If we all take responsibility and work together to effect these changes, accepting whatever sacrifices we need to make, we can minimize the disruption to our personal lives.

It is also incredibly irresponsible to continue to quibble about whether global warming is real or not. Taking the risk of guessing wrong is out of the question. We are talking about the quality and sustainability of our very existence. Surely the immorality of pouring megatons of filth into our environment every day is enough to want to act. Are we really all so irresponsible? Research has shown that "group think" tends to follow irrational directions in the comfort that everyone else is doing it. Another reason why we all must become leaders, so as to break the doomsday spell of our collective madness.

Also, history has shown that we are forever underestimating ourselves. It is very short-sight to think that we can't turn this crisis to our advantage. Technology will be found (and there is strong evidence that it already exists) that will not only replace our current unintelligent unsustainable practices but will also be far more efficient and cost effective. I can clearly see us standing on our back verandas, smelling the clean fresh air, listening to the birds singing away in our peaceful natural living environment as we watch our healthy happy children playing together in the back yard and wondering why had we even considered putting such quality of life in peril, and for what - a bit short-term inconvenience. A small price to pay for our planet, our only home.

There is a nice saying that I saw the other day; "We don't inherit this planet from our ancestors, we borrow if from our children." What is it going to look like when you hand it to them? Are you going to be able to look them in the eye when they ask how did we let it get this bad? What will you say when they ask you what you personally did about it? You, the individual, are responsible. You are the solution.

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