Barbara J. Hamby

Let’s Hear it for Being Selfish

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Myth: we have to save the earth. Frankly, the earth doesn’t need to be saved. Nature doesn’t give a hoot if human beings are here or not. The planet has survived cataclysmic and catastrophic changes for millions upon millions of years. Over that time, it is widely believed, 99 percent of all species have come and gone while the planet has remained. Saving the environment is really about saving our environment - making it safe for ourselves, our children, and the world as we know it. If more people saw the issue as one of saving themselves, we would probably see increased motivation and commitment to actually do so. -Robert M. Lilienfeld, management consultant and author (b. 1953) and William L. Rathje, archaeologist and author (b. 1945)

I can’t remember where I ran across this thought, but it strikes me as interesting. Perhaps if environmentalists started pointing this out, and made a convincing argument that saving our resources is actually saving humanity, everyone would take more interest.

Selfishly saving resources, instead of greedily gobbling them up, makes sense to me. I hope that convincing the human inhabitants of earth doesn’t take more time than we have.