Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t ethical voter, David Pentland; “… What if we imagined “wealth” consisting not of the money we stuff into banks or the fossil fuel-derived goods we pile up, but of joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness … “
Opinion What if climate change meant not doom — but abundance?
By Rebecca Solnit
March 15, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDTRebecca Solnit, a writer and historian, is the author of more than 20 books and co-editor of the anthology “Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story From Despair to Possibility,” publishing in April.
A monastic once told me renunciation can be great if it means giving up things that make you miserable.
This vision, I think, is what has been missing when we talk about the climate crisis — and how we should respond to it.
Much of the reluctance to do what climate change requires comes from the assumption that it means trading abundance for austerity, and trading all our stuff and conveniences for less stuff, less convenience. But what if it meant giving up things we’re well rid of, from deadly emissions to nagging feelings of doom and complicity in destruction? What if the austerity is how we live now — and the abundance could be what is to come?
…
What if we imagined “wealth” consisting not of the money we stuff into banks or the fossil fuel-derived goods we pile up, but of joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness to flourishing nature, to good food produced without abuse of labor? What if we were to think of wealth as security in our environments and societies, and as confidence in a viable future?
…
For so many of us, being busy with work has leached away our capacity to pursue true riches. What if we were to prioritize reclaiming our time— to fret less about getting and spending — and instead “spend” this precious resource on creative pursuits, on adventure and learning, on building stronger societies and being better citizens, on caring for the people (and other species and places) we love, on taking care of ourselves?
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/15/rebecca-solnit-climate-change-wealth-abundance/
Anyone who bothers to open a history book already knows what time wealth without money wealth looks like.
There is nothing romantic about trying to grow your own food with hand tools, without the assistance of modern fossil fuel powered technology, sprays and fertilisers.
The horror of 9/11 shocked the entire world. It also has a very personal impact on me, my business went into deep freeze for an entire year.
In 2002 I planted a large vegetable garden, to try to stretch my savings.
I had lots of “time wealth”, but very little money wealth.
My efforts with the vegetable garden made a difference. Those veggies I grew in 2002 saved my family from financial ruin, they helped us stretch our savings just enough, to bridge the year long post 9/11 gap in our income.
But after the economy started thawing, I was very glad to get back to making money, instead of enjoying that endless “time wealth” of growing vegetables by hand.
I’m not dissing people who enjoy growing their own food. I enjoy growing food, every year I make bottles of delicious lime cordial from my own garden. But if my fruit trees fail to produce, as they do some years, money wealth means I can buy limes and mandarins and whatever else I need from the supermarket. Money wealth is food security and peace of mind.
So my answer to anyone who tries to romanticise being close to nature is try it out – not for a day or two, or a weekend camping trip with nylon tents and airbeds and tinned food and bug spray and propane cookers and heaters. Try living that way for a year.
Anyone who makes the attempt to live the lifestyle green romantics like Rebecca Solnit advocate, will learn very quickly that nature is a harsh place full of biting, stinging insects, and snails and slugs and caterpillars and grubs which try to eat all your crops. They will also come to appreciate why thousands of generations of our ancestors devoted their lives to leaving future generations a better world than the primitive subsistence world they inherited.
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Poverty always looks romantic to those who don’t have to experience it.
I live in a suburban area where most people live in hones on fairly large areas of land, ranging from l/4 of an acre to sometimes more than 5 acres. When I go for my daily walks, along the interconnecting paths and forest trails, I see lots of fenced and hedged gardens with barking dogs, but rarely do I see any vegetable patches and fruit trees.
Most of these home-owners seem to spend a lot of time and effort meticulously cutting and shaping their hedges, mowing the lawn, maintaining flower gardens and decorative trees, a swimming pool and sometimes even a tennis court which is hardly ever used.
What a waste of time!
Never heard of this woman. After doing a quick search, it sounds like she lives a miserable existence. Not married, no children, age 62. The small amount of her writings that I read make her sound extremely bitter, especially toward her parents. Here’s a quote:
“When my friends began to have babies and I came to comprehend the heroic labor it takes to keep one alive, the constant exhausting tending of a being who can do nothing and demands everything, I realized that my mother had done all of these things for me before I remembered. I was fed; I was washed; I was clothed; I was taught to speak and given a thousand other things, over and over again, hourly, daily, for years. She gave me everything before she gave me nothing.”
― Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby
I’ve always thought that the best way to cure a leftist would be to let them create their own utopia and then make them live in it as an average citizen.
If Rebecca Solnit had to live the life she advocates for everyone else, it would not go as pleasantly as she imagines in her fantasy. The things she mentions as a replacement for wealth, from joy, beauty, friendship, community, nature, to good food, are all easier to obtain with wealth. Try obtaining a beautiful piece of art or a beautiful woman with little money. You will likely be outbid.
The story of William Lane’s “New Australia” settlement founded in the late 19th century in
Paraguay may be of interest.
So how many meaningful smiles for a plate of pasta?
Never mind a year roughing it, challenge these back-to-nature moonies with just giving up their cell phone for a month.
I lived in former Soviet Union…there is NOTHING romantic about going hungry.
People who love socialism have never truly been hungry or are too stupid to realize why they went hungry because they swallowed up the propaganda of the Regime at the time.
Living close to nature is amazing. When you do NOT have to rely on nature to reliably provide what you need. When nature is a supplemental to your life, even an important and huge part of it.
But there is nothing great in living from nature only and worrying about not going hungry all the time.
I hate, hate , HATE these people with my whole heart.
Amazing what crap people can write and get paid for.
Rather difficult to pay your bills with joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness, etc, much less run a business and pay employees and vendors. Maybe I’ll try paying my heating oil dealer with a hug.
“… What if we imagined “wealth” consisting not of the money we stuff into banks or the fossil fuel-derived goods we pile up, but of joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness … “
… the government would tax it. They have been talking about a “wealth tax” for a few years now.
I guess a good start would be for the wealthiest to relinquish their cash and see where it leads.
Deal! Send me Bezo’s wealth, and he can Choose the sustainable replacement for wealth that he deems best. Oh, he doesn’t get tons of it, he’ll have to re-earn it.
“This vision, I think, is what has been missing when we talk about the climate crisis”
This, in a nutshell, is the entire problem. She assumes there is a climate crisis, because she’s been told there is. But she can’t provide any evidence. But she bleats on as if it’s true.
What a crock of excrement.
So basically, once they make us all poor and miserable in their pursuit of non-solutions to imaginary “crises,” we can console ourselves about the “comraderie” we will experience in our sharing of misery and suffering?
No thanks. If she wants to go back to the times of witch trials, let her invent time travel and do it without the rest of us.
Rebecca, and like minded individuals deserve all of the “joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness” they can muster without any of the energy, fertilizer, agricultural production, electricity, consumer goods, tools, technology and protection from the elements they can muster without the assistance of fossil fuels.