When it comes to going green, intention can be easier than action. Case in point: you decide to buy a T-shirt made from 100% organic cotton, because everyone knows that organic is better for Earth. And in some ways it is; in conventional cotton-farming, pesticides strip the soil of life. But that green label doesn't tell the whole story. Or the possibility that the T-shirt may have been dyed using harsh industrial chemicals, which can pollute local groundwater. If you knew all that, would you still consider the T-shirt green? .
It's a question that most of us are ill equipped to answer, even as the debate over what is and isn't green becomes all-important in a hot and crowded world. . We evolved to respond to threats that were clear and present. That's why, when we eat spoiled food, we get disgusted and when we see a bright light, we shut our eyes. . Scanning the supermarket aisles, we lack the data to understand the full impact of what we choose —and probably couldn't make sense of the information even if we had it.
But what if we could seamlessly calculate the full lifetime effect of our actions on the earth and on our bodies? That's what psychologist Daniel Goleman describes in his forthcoming book, Ecological Intelligence. Using a young science called industrial ecology, businesses and green activists alike are beginning to compile the environmental and biological impact of our every decision—and delivering that information to consumers in a user-friendly way. That's thinking ecologically—understanding the global environmental consequences of our local choices. "We can know the causes of what we're doing, and we can know the impact of what we're doing," says Goleman, who wrote the 1995 best seller Emotional Intelligence.
It's also about our ability to accept that we live in an infinitely connected world with finite resources. Golem an highlights the Tibetan community of Sher, where for millenniums, villagers have survived harsh conditions by carefully conserving every resource available to them. The Tibetans think ecologically because they have no other choice. Neither do we. "We once had the luxury to ignore our impacts," says Goleman. "Not anymore."
A. Would you still buy it? B. What if we could think ecologically? C. It's going to have a radical impact on the way we do business. D. Ecological intelligence is ultimately about more than what we buy. E. Not just carbon footprints but social and biological footprints as well? F. But nothing in evolution has prepared us to understand the accumulative impact industrial chemicals may have on us. G. That's because our ability to make complex products with complex supply chains has outpaced our ability to comprehend the consequences. |
