In high school I read Silent Spring and was surprised to learn that bad things can happen unintentionally while trying for improvement from a limited perspective. I had no idea until then that humans could harm the environment and also thought that farmland was nature undisturbed. There were no environmentalists that I knew of at the time.

Years later, on air flights, I saw the huge dome of air pollution that sits over Chicago as we descended into it. I worked for a few years on the 102nd floor of Sears Tower and saw the pollution plume building from traffic each day. Had occasional 5AM shifts and noticed the amazing difference in air quality when there has been little traffic for hours…I could actually smell the fragrance of plants as I rode my bike down empty city streets to the train.

The impact of consumption dawned on me while visiting homes and seeing basements stuffed with things that were never used and then watching the explosion of self-storage places where such things are stored because the basements are full, despite the growing size of homes. My parents passed away and I realized how little of what one person treasures is wanted by others…all that we pile up ends up eventually as trash, not only the small things but our cars and houses eventually.

This brought awareness that we live in our minds, not the physical world. In other words, things have emotional/psychic meaning and value that can easily blind us to the physical impact of our unlimited and constantly stimulated desire for stuff. We act largely on what we feel, not what we might know. For every person, such as the author of this website, who is driven to know, there are many who do not want to know. What would we be without our stuff to define and redefine ourselves as we wish? It can be very threatening, but I’ve found if you can overcome the fear then getting rid of as much as you can is like removing a burden. Your bills end and there is freedom to be had.

I came up with a mind experiment: thinking of all that I have ever purchased piled up on one side of a balance scale and me sitting as the generic naked human animal on the other, I realized that my impact on the physical world is astounding. I multiply myself the individual by billions and the physical impact is beyond comprehension. With this realization, I dedicated myself to using the minimum, using it until it wears out and buying only what I really need…that balance scale always in mind…with the thought that I should act as I would have others act, especially the children I have who watched what I did as they grew up.

PLASTICS:
Though I have always thought it wasteful to continually throw away things that remain perfectly functional and have an almost unlimited lifetime, I have to admit that I’ve received an education at FPF. I had no idea of the extent of the impact of plastic, in the oceans in particular.