Ecology or Egology? The Role of the Individual in the Environmental Crisis

The environmental sciences usually focus on understanding the many intricate relationships and interdependencies that have evolved between the millions of living systems inhabiting the earth. "Why are such studies necessary in the first place?"

The rapid and liberal development of technology is clearly part of the problem.

Yet it is also clear that technological might is not the sole cause of environmental mismanagement. It is ultimately human beings who choose how to use technology, and they initiate the actions that result in ecological disturbances. How is it that people can adhere to policies that by nearly all pro­jections look suicidal?

Such behavior stems from individuals' not seeing beyond their short-term welfare and from their perceiving their inter­ests to be different from the interests of humanity as a whole. For most people an immediate personal fulfillment is more attractive than some distant long-term benefit, and so they naturally go for the former.

In the more developed nations—those responsible for the major environmental problems today—the basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, and health care are fairly well attended to. What emerges then is the need for psychological welfare, in particular, the need to be liked. We spend considerable time and effort fulfilling this need.

One of the most common ways we try to win approval and prestige is through material possessions. We collect many of the various accoutrements of modern living—new cars, fash­ionable clothes, and expensive furniture—not because we need them physically but because we need them psychologically.

Some implications of this for the way we treat the environ­ment are obvious. We gobble up irreplaceable resources, with little regard for the long-term future, partly because the various products they are transformed into may briefly satisfy our search for identity. Thus, the consumers are as much exploiters of the environment as the corporations.

Yet there is more to it than that. We do have choices in how we satisfy our misguided search for material well, initiate industrial pro­cesses with various environmental effects, and set in motion other activities that in one way or another upset the ecological balance.

Another profound consequence of our inner insecurity is a lack of true caring and compassion, either for others or for the environment. Each of us, at our core, is a compassionate being capable of deep empathy and caring. If we can get back in contact with this deeper self, we can begin to experience compassion not only for other people but also for the rest of the world.