41
deemed worthless, sometimes disgusting, or even dangerous. We want to throw it
a-w-a-y—the farther, the better.
The problem with this view of waste, and our relation to it, is that there is no
away. If we continue to reinforce these ideas in our own minds every time we think
about the byproducts of our living, if we use language to describe our waste in only
negative and fearful terms, it is almost impossible to see how some of what we discard could ever be a useful asset of tremendous worth. Another problematic outcome of trying to throw away our waste is that we are displacing huge amounts of
raw material from places on the planet, where they are not harming anyone, altering
them, and putting them in other places where they are causing problems for living
creatures, including us.
The term “waste” is a context-dependent value judgment. The same physical
material, as it moves through time and space, changes value as we use it. Carbon
atoms, stored in fuel sources deep in the earth, are considered valuable resources to
be extracted and set free to combine with oxygen during combustion. The instant
they move from a necessary component of refined hydrocarbon fuel, used to do
work, to an exhausted byproduct combining with oxygen in the air we breathe, their
value as an asset changes to a liability cost in the form of too much atmospheric
CO 2 . The same is true for nearly every other natural resource we extract (take in),
use, and discard (give back) to maintain our way of life in a linear global economy.
In order to externalize the costs of dealing with what is left of a thing that is
deemed of having no value, we treat the air, land, and sea as three garbage cans with
limitless capacity to absorb what we do not want. When we do this, we create problems. Throwing away requires that we collectively maintain the illusion that the
earth is bigger than it is and that there are many fewer of us on the planet than there
currently are. The truth is, though, that in a closed system, where technology and
ecology comingle, waste byproducts remain extremely close by suspended and circulating in solid, liquid, and gaseous media. This new pollution directly and indirectly impacts biota that evolved for millions of years in environments in which it
was absent.
3.2 Earth
Air and liquid water flow. They evade our direct perception as objects. Not so with
the earth. It is the terra firma on which we stand, walk, ride, build, and live. Its solid
surface literally supports all life. At the bottom of the deepest ocean, almost 7 miles
down, you touch earth. Mount Everest and other peaks reach up more than 5 miles
into the sky. Nearly all people on earth live comfortably between these extremes,
Energy to the Programme of Research and Actions on the Development of the Labour Market,
DGV, Commission of the European Communities, Brussels.
3.2 Earth
deemed worthless, sometimes disgusting, or even dangerous. We want to throw it
a-w-a-y—the farther, the better.
The problem with this view of waste, and our relation to it, is that there is no
away. If we continue to reinforce these ideas in our own minds every time we think
about the byproducts of our living, if we use language to describe our waste in only
negative and fearful terms, it is almost impossible to see how some of what we discard could ever be a useful asset of tremendous worth. Another problematic outcome of trying to throw away our waste is that we are displacing huge amounts of
raw material from places on the planet, where they are not harming anyone, altering
them, and putting them in other places where they are causing problems for living
creatures, including us.
The term “waste” is a context-dependent value judgment. The same physical
material, as it moves through time and space, changes value as we use it. Carbon
atoms, stored in fuel sources deep in the earth, are considered valuable resources to
be extracted and set free to combine with oxygen during combustion. The instant
they move from a necessary component of refined hydrocarbon fuel, used to do
work, to an exhausted byproduct combining with oxygen in the air we breathe, their
value as an asset changes to a liability cost in the form of too much atmospheric
CO 2 . The same is true for nearly every other natural resource we extract (take in),
use, and discard (give back) to maintain our way of life in a linear global economy.
In order to externalize the costs of dealing with what is left of a thing that is
deemed of having no value, we treat the air, land, and sea as three garbage cans with
limitless capacity to absorb what we do not want. When we do this, we create problems. Throwing away requires that we collectively maintain the illusion that the
earth is bigger than it is and that there are many fewer of us on the planet than there
currently are. The truth is, though, that in a closed system, where technology and
ecology comingle, waste byproducts remain extremely close by suspended and circulating in solid, liquid, and gaseous media. This new pollution directly and indirectly impacts biota that evolved for millions of years in environments in which it
was absent.
3.2 Earth
Air and liquid water flow. They evade our direct perception as objects. Not so with
the earth. It is the terra firma on which we stand, walk, ride, build, and live. Its solid
surface literally supports all life. At the bottom of the deepest ocean, almost 7 miles
down, you touch earth. Mount Everest and other peaks reach up more than 5 miles
into the sky. Nearly all people on earth live comfortably between these extremes,
Energy to the Programme of Research and Actions on the Development of the Labour Market,
DGV, Commission of the European Communities, Brussels.
3.2 Earth