Hope on Earth: A Conversation by Paul R. Ehrlich Michael Charles Tobias & John Harte

Author:Paul R. Ehrlich, Michael Charles Tobias & John Harte [Ehrlich, Paul R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2014-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

3

THE CHOICES WE MAKE

MOVING FORWARD IN SPITE OF CONTRADICTIONS

Owl superimposed over downtown Los Angeles. © Dancing Star Foundation

PE: But that’s an example of personal choice—eating food containing insect parts (unavoidable) doesn’t worry me except to the extent they represent poor sanitary conditions, and I would certainly not practice brahmacharya (a Jain principle of skipping sex, the most fun thing evolution ever invented). But those choices are certainly ones I and most of our society would not consider immoral, if perhaps silly. Then maybe I’m just a greedy son of a bitch . . .

MT: Oh sure. You professors are right up there with the big hedge fund managers. But I do agree that we are all greedy to the extent that we want food when we want it. We need sleep when we need it, and we’ll take it, if we can, on the best available mattresses. We are both wearing shoes rather than going barefoot. We’re well equipped; I’ve got all this technology, et cetera, et cetera. So, I mean, do we have to set an example of the ultimate in order to be persuasive? Al Gore was criticized for flying around the world so many times and showing up in a limo, I am told (I have no proof), at one of the big premieres of his film, An Inconvenient Truth. I don’t think the former vice president’s itinerary or mode of travel nullified his urgent message. Sorry. Nor that of the 50,000 or so, like myself, who made their way to the United Nations Rio+20 Summit.

PE: Well, of course, I’ve been in this game a long time, and I’ve always argued, as I just did, that personally, I’d like to have a planet where a billion or a billion and a half people can live the way you and I live more or less in perpetuity. I believe that will give us more Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens utility, in the long run, than seeing if you can cram fifteen billion people onto the planet living like battery chickens (those birds again) and have the whole system disintegrate.

MT: By “utility” you mean?

PE: The satisfaction one gets from using or consuming a product or service. I think we judge our utilities badly, but it’s a personal choice shaped by the norms of our societies. I don’t care. I use a lot of gadgets—we’re both using gadgets—but I don’t feel it gives me anywhere near the utility I could obtain in other circumstances. I’d be much more satisfied if everybody (including me) was working a thirty-hour week and having lots of time to read, make love, eat decent food, but not consume excessively—you know, more and more junk, or four Hummers in your garage, that sort of thing. Give me four wonderful lovers any time.

MT: And I make jokes very glibly about fast food being the food that should kill us as fast as possible—those who eat it.

PE: Which in my opinion it is designed to do, since it’s designed to make people overeat dangerous food.

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