Waste/Buy String One Length At A Time

Tuesday and life is humming along - lot's of activity getting ready to move from the office, divesting SOO much stuff. I feel lighter with each possession that leaves my possession. I once fantasized about being able to itemize everything I own on two sides of a piece of legal paper. Think of it! Kind of like trying to list all the 50 states (you always miss some, right?) or what I've been doing lately when I have a quiet moment - listing Scrabble words. The thought I would be able to list everything I own is unimaginable! And yet, what a wonderful thought! How did we get so much stuff?  I remember reading about a woman journalist who moved to Shanghai and how different the lifestyle was in her authentic Chinese neighborhood. Vendors would cruise the neighborhood on bikes with wares for sale and people would buy JUST what they needed. One vendor sold lengths of string - people bought string by the meter from him when they needed a length to tie something with. I, on the other hand, probably have no less than ten balls of string between drawers in the house, the garage, closets, mystery bags with unknown stuff, etc. And that's just string!

Took a break from writing this and Shay and I went through everything on the first floor of my office. Think we got rid of more than 1,000 pounds of stuff - seriously! I absolutely hate that I accumulated that much stuff - it's so excessive. And I'm just one person! Is it weird that I started to mourn for the earth? I said to Shay, "All this stuff was harvested from nature. The plastic was made from disemboweling the planet. We buy it, keep it for a short time, it is soon obsolete, and then we try and put it back into the earth (landfill) but it's in a form the earth can't digest - will take thousands of years to turn back into a natural resource. I'm not explaining myself well. Let me try again.

I keep having images of humans reaching deeper and deeper into the crust of the earth, extracting everything that can be turned into something of human value. So much of what we extract is quickly disposed of - earth to energy that is being belched into the atmosphere. I'm in the business of selling bandwidth which can be thought of as nothing more than smart electricity. Because of personal technology, the need for bandwidth is increasing exponentially - the functionality we have at our fingertips with our personal devices is mind boggling and the need for bandwidth (energy) ever increasing (shocking amounts). It is absolutely unsustainable and wasteful and much of the appetite for energy is hedonistic (think Sarah playing twenty simultaneous cell phone games and the phone barely able to keep up with the electricity I was drawing).

And maybe if you believe in the Rapture and feel the Earth is a disposable resource for humans to do with what they will, then you are not upset about this. But if you think like me, take a step back, get some perspective and realize the simple truth of our actions - we are gobbling up the Earth's crust and spitting it out into the atmosphere in the form of spent energy, or dumping it back into the earth in a way that poisons. All for what - "advancement" and entertainment? I have walked the aisles of carrier hotels, server farms where this energy is being consumed in massive quantities - there is never enough electricity available to power all the servers (it's often rationed). The "cloud" you're hearing so much about is nothing more than these server farms at places like 350 E. Cermak in Chicago. They can't build these facilities fast enough - just heard a statistic that, for every 100 IPads fired up, it requires installing a new server in a carrier hotel to support them!

Here are some tidbits from an article from the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) worth considering:

Earth's population will be forced to colonise two planets within 50 years if natural resources continue to be exploited at the current rate, according to a report out this week. A study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), to be released on Tuesday, warns that the human race is plundering the planet at a pace that outstrips its capacity to support life. In a damning condemnation of Western society's high consumption levels, it adds that the extra planets (the equivalent size of Earth) will be required by the year 2050 as existing resources are exhausted. The report, based on scientific data from across the world, reveals that more than a third of the natural world has been destroyed by humans over the past three decades. Using the image of the need for mankind to colonise space as a stark illustration of the problems facing Earth, the report warns that either consumption rates are dramatically and rapidly lowered or the planet will no longer be able to sustain its growing population.

It goes on to say that:

'It seems things are getting worse faster than possibly ever before. Never has one single species had such an overwhelming influence. We are entering uncharted territory.' *

And:

America's consumption 'footprint' is 12.2 hectares per head of population compared to the UK's 6.29ha while Western Europe as a whole stands at 6.28ha. In Ethiopia the figure is 2ha, falling to just half a hectare for Burundi, the country that consumes least resources...The report, which will be unveiled in Geneva, warns that the wasteful lifestyles of the rich nations are mainly responsible for the exploitation and depletion of natural wealth. Human consumption has doubled over the last 30 years and continues to accelerate by 1.5 per cent a year.

The challenge today is thinking about consumption and all the stuff you have. If you find yourself in the same position as me, embarrassed and chagrined to be such an abuser of resources, then maybe vow to do better going forward. Soon I'll be moving into my home office with a fraction of the space I have now. I pledge, with you as my witnesses, to walk lighter on the earth - to take only what I need, to limit my use of resources.You and I may never purchase string one length at a time, but we can live more simply and organized so that we know what we have, stop gobbling, and live more respectfully. I have tears of remorse for my unnecessary and careless consumption - the waste I now faced as I downsize. There really is no excuse for it.

Peace,
Sarah

* quote from Martin Jenkins, senior adviser for the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, which helped compile the report.

Picture is a server farm - "the cloud"