On Sustainable Living

In Wendell Berry's essay 'Solving for Pattern', we had read his philosophy on farming. Now with 'Preserving Wildness', we have seen the extension of his philosophical outlook as applied to all of human interaction with nature. He has also given us an example of the kind of sustainable lifestyle he is advocating in 'The Making of a Marginal Farm'. As in his essay on farming, Berry's recommendations for the best human lifestyle are ones that encourage a harmony with nature and require us to understand how the natural world works.

Berry walks the line between an anthro-centric and an eco-centric viewpoint. His is in many ways a pragmatic outlook since it is nigh impossible to ask humans to completely re-orient their world-view to become entirely eco-centric, but at the same time we cannot fail to consider the state of our environment. Berry is of the opinion that 'the human and the natural are indivisible, and yet are different' (519). He does not ask that we try to value every living thing the same as we value humanity, but rather that we consider our dependence on the natural world and at the very least take care of it so that we can preserve ourselves as well. This tends to be an anthro-centric viewpoint and could degrade into the extreme against which Berry warns, that is, someone who sees nature as only existing to serve humans. Berry admits 'I don't see how the human species can avoid some version of self-centeredness', but he does ask for an eco-centric view as well. Certainly nature would carry on without us (and in this way, I think, humanity and nature are, in fact, divisible), but our existence threatens nature at every turn and so its survival is dependent on us. Berry is asking that instead of looking at the land as something to use, we consider it a companion, perhaps even something of a mother. Berry speaks of a love for nature that might motivate and shape our interactions with it and so we would end up with 'an economy that rewards and enforces good use' (523). Berry continues to explain how our relationship with nature would build a better economy:

I would call this a loving economy, for it would strive to place a proper value on all the materials of the world, in all heir metamorphoses from soil and water, air and light to the finished goods of our towns and households and I think that the only effective motive for this would be a particularizing love for local things, rising our of local knowledge and local allegiance. (523)

On the other hand, Berry's viewpoint is still rather idealistic. The kind of life he advocates is sensible and good and he may make many converts from his writings, but the fact remains that humanity is so diverse in its upbringings and beliefs and experiences that we will never be able to make a concerted effort as he hopes for. He realized this must start at a local level and that harmony with nature is really only possible if it is built from the ground up, but for such ideas to take hold in enough places to make a worldwide impact is doubtful to me. In talking about his own small, sustainable farm life, he admits that it is an expensive undertaking and cannot in reality be done without supplemental income and a job that allows for much of one's daytime to be spent working the land. As much as we may wish to all have our own little farms from which we may gather fruit in three of four seasons and keep animals for meat and dairy and so become nearly independent, the fact remains that we cannot all afford it. Especially since suburbia and cities themselves expand so rapidly, taking over what was one arable land, it would cost more than anyone could afford to try to return the majority of the American population to an agrarian, sustainable lifestyle.

Nevertheless, Berry's suggestions for how to move towards harmony with the land are valuable and much more practical than the extreme anthro- or eco-centric views. He gives us three questions on which to base our interactions with nature and I think that these embody the balance between anthro- and eco-centric ways that Berry is advocating:

1. What is here?

2. What will nature permit us to do here?

3. What will nature help us to do here? (525)

With these guiding questions, we may yet hope to accomplish a more balanced world. We must also remember: 'We are creatures obviously subordinate to nature, dependent upon a wild world that we did not make' (526).

Quotes from: Berry, Wendell "Preserving Wildness." American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau. Ed. Bill McKibben. New York: The Library of America, 2008. 516-530.