Hope Beneath Our Feet_ Restoring Our Place in the Natural World - Martin Keogh [14]
Tenth and best reason: Trying to do what’s right in this world is a basic human instinct, for most of us a more powerful drive than the temptation to do wrong. Without that built-in altruism, our species would have disappeared long ago. Economist Herman Daly and philosopher John Cobb invented a brilliant new economics based on this finding. It’s the subject of their 1989 book For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment and a Sustainable Future. Daly and Cobb disprove the commonly held belief that ending population growth would be economically ruinous. They show just the opposite: that long-term prosperity actually depends on stabilizing our numbers and then reducing them. For the Common Good is an important work, right up there with The Wealth of Nations and Das Kapital. It’s also a whole lot more uplifting.
Daly and Cobb agree that lending a hand for the planet’s health is its own reward. Trying to keep the land beautiful, the rivers pure, the air sweet—to them that’s all just plain good. A no-brainer for anyone, really. Doing right by the earth warms the heart, whether one has much success or not.
That alone would keep me plugging away. But to maintain momentum I have needed one more thing. It’s the thing a lot of us Green Party types neglect. It is this: we need to kick back and enjoy the world we are trying to save.
Yes, we need to play, and it helps if it’s physical. Too many environmental activists are unfit, urban-dwelling, indoor activists. We need exercise.
We need exercise outdoors, in the natural world. My wife and I are lucky enough to be surrounded by the mountain wilderness we cherish. We can step off our porch and be on the trail in five minutes, enjoying ourselves in a place we have tried hard to protect. After yet another meeting about yet another threat to the national park, when I’m angry with the opportunists gathered at the gates and the park officials who seem much too willing to let them in, there’s nothing better than a two-hour hike. It clears the mind and restores the spirit. Evil recedes in the rosy glow of a good workout in natural surroundings.
Why is that? Why is it so attractive to walk in the woods?
I think it’s because the wilderness is where our species grew up. That’s where we lived back in the days when the world’s total population was under a million. Back then we were proud aboriginal hunters and gatherers, not wimpy wage-slaves and Safeway shoppers. We were doing what we had evolved to do, we liked doing it, and the world in which we did it was unspoiled. There were no cities or freeways or coal mines or clear-cuts or oil wells or pig farms or car factories or suburbs or strip malls or army bases or missile silos. To quote the Navaho, we “walked in beauty.” I think we miss that.
When I’m in the backcountry of Jasper National Park, walking in beauty, the people I meet on the trail might be the same folks with whom I have endured an Edmonton traffic snarl. “Snarl” is right. There, we cursed the situation and each other. In the backcountry, though, walking in beauty, even if it’s raining, we smile and say hello. In the wilds we are few, and thus we are nice to each other. It comes naturally and it feels good. The feeling lingers after the trip is over. Great days in the mountains lead to better days back home.
Thus, recreation is an essential part of my life. To make sure I get enough, I have a rule of thirds:
I spend about a third of my time making a living. I have to do that.
I spend another third of my time doing things that I’m not paid for but do anyway, because people I love and care about need the help. This includes everything from household chores to volunteering on worthwhile projects to resisting serious corporate and government misconduct when the need arises. I just can’t help doing that.
I spend the remaining third of my time brightening my life, often through physical activity outdoors. I