“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”
— Thomas Paine, from the introduction to Common Sense.
For more than 200, years we have accepted the burning of fossil fuels as the way to power our rapidly changing modern world. For more than 100 years, we have accepted the gasoline-powered car for personal mobility. For more 70 years, we have accepted crop hybridization, chemical fertilizers and herbicides as the means to feed our exploding population. For more than 60, years we have accepted the use of plastics for food and water containers, plumbing, home furnishings, building, automobiles, toys, and a myriad of other uses. For more than 50, years we have accepted nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels.
Experts told us that we were following the best path available to us in order to provide a higher standard of living for a growing population, and we went along with the experts. Well, not all of us. In 1970, a new publication appeared on the scene. The Mother Earth News was different.
According its masthead, it was “a bi-monthly publication edited by, and expressly for, today’s influential hip young adults. The creative people. The doers. The ones who make it all happen. Heavy emphasis is placed on alternative life styles, ecology, working with nature and doing more with less.” The “Back to the Earth” movement was born.
Then in 1976, a young physicist by the name of Amory Lovins authored an essay in which he warned that continuing to use fossil fuels would increase atmospheric carbon dioxide and cause irreversible changes in global climate. He was a lone voice against many experts, but of course, we went along with the many.
Well, not all of us. In 1979 President Jimmy Carter tried to wake us up when he had 39 solar panels installed on the White House roof. This could have been the start of something big. However, Ronald Reagan had a completely different take on energy consumption and so when he took office in 1981 he had the panels removed. The push for change was crushed under Reagan’s belief that the free market was the best arbiter of what was best for the country.
Fast forward to 2019 and even though Lovins was right, too few of us actually went “back to the earth”. The result: we are suffering not just from climate change, but also air and water pollution, a landscape covered with plastic garbage, and food that lacks the natural nutrition that our bodies need for optimum health. In short, we are living in a world that is now killing us .
Yet, the vast majority of us continue to live our daily lives based on the scientific fallacies of yesterday. Even though a majority of experts now agree with Lovins, even though renewable energies are now cheaper than coal or nuclear, and even though Mother Earth News will soon turn 50, we are still struggling to break away from the disastrous energy policies of the 19th and 20th centuries.
However, signs of change are all around us. Drive east on I-84 into the world of wind energy. Check out the organic food sections in the supermarkets. Pay attention to the number of roof top solar panels showing up in your neighborhood, or make note of the number of Teslas on the roads.
As the 21st century continues, we are changing direction for the better, and yet other changes are coming into play. Completely ignoring the current state of the world, the federal government seems to be bent on taking us back to the delusional environmental, political, and social policies of the 1950s, ’60s’ and ’70s. Hopefully, this effort will soon be stopped.
When Thomas Paine wrote, “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right,” he had no idea how apropos his words would be hundreds of years in the future.
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