Who Needs Nature? #042

Daily Happiness Gym

Hello, and welcome again to Every Dawn. Yesterday, we talked about this idea of flourishing, that everyone can only flourish together with others; you cannot flourish alone. This is what Aristotle believes, and therefore, this cutthroat competition in society, where everybody tries to be better than others and take away resources for himself, is not going to work really in the big scheme of things because we are all dependent on each other.

And this also applies to nature, and it is very clear with these examples from nature. Last time I talked about the tree where a tree that flourishes, that is healthy and has lots of leaves and fruits and gives lots of shade, is beneficial not only to itself but it's beneficial to its whole environment. A tree like that gives shade for humans, it gives fruit to humans, it gives a place for the birds to nest, it has all these positive effects on its environment, and so this tree cannot flourish alone; it can flourish only together with other things, and by flourishing, it benefits back everything else.

And Aristotle thinks that it's exactly the same for humans: we can only flourish together, and we can only flourish together with nature. And so, this is why when we build a world like we, unfortunately, do, that is technological in this violent sense like ours is, where we ignore completely the requirements of nature, where we destroy species, where we destroy biotopes, where we make species extinct, where we pollute rivers and lakes, and where we make the air unbreathable and where we increase the global temperatures; when we do all these things, we are actually not benefiting ourselves.

We think we are benefiting ourselves, we think of it as an opposition, you know, I improve my wealth, and by improving my wealth, I destroy the environment, but Aristotle would say this is totally wrong. You're not improving your wealth because when you destroy the environment, you're destroying the conditions for your own flourishing because we cannot live in a world that has polluted water, polluted air, high temperatures, extinct species. In this world we cannot live; this world will be a lifeless desert, and we will not be able to survive in it. And so, this is very important in terms of understanding what is sometimes called deep ecology, this idea that ecologically we are all connected to nature.

When we talk about protecting nature, the idea is not that we suffer in order to protect nature, and if we get our benefit, then we can ignore nature. This is what very often people will say, especially you know, right-wing politicians will tell you, your economic benefit depends on destroying nature, but it's more important, so go destroy nature and get your economic benefit. But this is for Aristotle, and in reality, if you think about it, a totally mistaken view because if you destroy nature, your benefit is also gone because we can all only flourish together, to use Aristotle's words.

So this is why when we think about the long-term flourishing of mankind, when we think about what we can do to make sure that in 50 years we are still happy, our children are happy, we don't die of cancer, we have clean air to breathe, we have a nice environment to live in, we automatically will understand that what we need to do is to protect nature; it is to work with it, to help it flourish so that we can gain in return the benefits from a flourishing nature that will provide us with clean air, clean water, healthy food, animals, shade, trees, all these things that are good for our soul, and they are good for our bodies, and they are good for our own flourishing.

So when we go out today, and we perhaps do a thousand little actions that contribute to the destruction of nature, I do the same, you know, I have a car, I'm driving a car, so every time I drive the car, I have this feeling that I'm doing something bad, because my car is destroying a little bit of nature, and it's not like it's giving me a benefit, I'm destroying my own future in this way. It looks like a benefit if I look only at today, you know, taking a car instead of a bus, more convenient, faster, if at the end of today the world would end, it would be okay to take the car, but the world won't end today, it will be there tomorrow, and tomorrow I will have a worse world because I took the car today, and I would have a slightly better world had I taken the bus. And so I think that instead of waiting, you know, for the politicians to sort out our world and the various meetings, global warming meetings that happen, you know, every few years here and there and are reported in the media, and the glaciers in Antarctica and so on, instead of relying on these big things to work out our problems, which they won't, it is much better that each of us perhaps tries to change a little their mindset and understand this thing that Aristotle wants to emphasize, that our flourishing depends on the flourishing of nature, and if you want your children to flourish, then your children will need fresh air, and this might mean that today you don't take the car, but you do take the bus if it's available in your region.

I understand that sometimes it's impossible; in many countries, there is no working bus system, or in many cities, it's not available, but if you have something like that, it would be a good idea to take it, not because you want to benefit nature, an abstract thing, but because you want to benefit yourself and your family in the future, and you can do this today by not taking this car. And the same for a thousand little things, you know, the air conditioner that you leave running, although you're not in the room, this air conditioner will not do anything good, it will take away future chances of flourishing from you and your future family, and by turning it off when you don't need it and being cautious about it, you are allowed to use it, nobody says you should die of a heat stroke, but use it cautiously, use it sparingly, and by using it only when you need it, you create better conditions for the future flourishing of you and your society and your own family, your own children.

And so, yeah, let's just look a little bit, observe a little bit where we can improve our own happiness because this also, of course, improves our happiness, the feeling that we are doing something for the environment, we're contributing to a good cause, to a life-saving cause by doing these things.

So let's see where we can contribute and how we can contribute, and perhaps do a thousand little things: turn off the lights, when we go out of a room, turn off the air conditioner, don't take the car, take a bike perhaps to go to visit your friend if it's close by, or instead of flying, perhaps take a train if it's available. In much of Europe, trains work much better than flights, and taking a flight is totally unnecessary. Again, I understand that in some countries it doesn't work out, but where these options are available, let's just not be lazy but think a little bit in terms of benefiting our future by changing our behavior today, because this is what Aristotle would have wanted.

Thank you, and see you again tomorrow.