The Overstory by Richard Powers is one of my favorite books. I’m borrowing a metaphor borrowed by the book. Say the planet is a body. The plants and trees and algae are the lungs, breathing for us all the time. The oceans and rivers and all the bodies of water are the circulatory system, keeping things flowing. The bacteria and fungi and all little critters that digest organic deadness are the excretory system. Now, new to this planet body, we are introducing human intelligence – humans are the brain of this body. Brains are delightful, mysterious organs that do amazing things. Human brains think of things that have never been thought of, and do things you couldn’t imagine could be done. Brains are also petulant, selfish, vindictive, and sometimes monstrous. They are all of these things at once.
Brains are also subject to addiction. Once addicted, they give the body bad marching orders and make terrible, life-threatening decisions. They sometimes make decisions that kill the body. Even if the addicted body doesn’t die completely, it’s often permanently damaged.
I’m hardly the first person to say humans are addicted to oil. I know first-person that an addicted brain is a terrible master. Being an addict, I feel in my bones what this experience is like for us as a species, and as the brain of this planet. One simple and cogent definition of addiction I’ve seen a lot is: continued use despite adverse consequences. We are baking the planet. We are embarking on a live experiment with no safety rails where the risk of failure is simply the death of our planetary brain and body. Sure, the big adventure of fossil fuels sounded fun at first, but as we used, we learned of the consequences, started experiencing the consequences, and kept using anyway. And we can’t stop. We know the risks, and still we can’t stop.
An addict’s rationales follow a pretty predictable escalation:
| Drugs and alcohol | Fossil fuels |
| My early drug use was fun and didn’t cause problems, so there must not be any! | The initial benefits of using fossil fuels outweighed the costs, so let’s not look at the costs. |
| That problem wasn’t caused by my using, that was just bad luck. | Human activity isn’t causing climate change, it’s just natural cycles. |
| Drug use feels great for my brain, so I can overlook how it’s damaging the body that supports the brain. | Fossil fuel use feels great for the people who benefit from it, so we can overlook the damage to the planet that supports us. |
| Well, my drug use maybe caused the problem, but it wasn’t that big a deal. | Human activity is warming the planet, but it won’t have a big effect, and maybe Pennsylvania could use more warm days. |
| I deeply identify with the drug/party lifestyle. I can’t see myself living any other way. | “The American way of life is not up for negotiation.” – George H. W. Bush |
| Yeah, my use is a problem, but I can fix it. I can keep using and just manage my behavior better. This is fine. | Human ingenuity will solve this problem. We come up with solutions for everything. We’ve got this. |
| Yikes, this is a problem and I can’t control it. If I don’t stop, this will be really bad. But I don’t know how to stop it. I don’t know how to live without drugs. | Uh-oh, we’ve got a real problem here. But to fix it, the cost would be astronomical. We don’t know how to live without fossil fuels. |
We’re chasing the high of infinite growth all the time. Fossil fuels have freed us from the limitations of wood, water and animal power. With the supercharged high-octane energy output of concentrated power available in oil, we can party all night. Our businesses can make more money than last year, more than the year before. Our population can grow without limit. Nevermind that the supply of our drug of choice is limited – and certainly nevermind the life-threatening consequences of our use. And our use is ratcheting up, not slowing down. We’ve gotta use more to maintain, and we’ll need still more to keep growing. We’re terrified of what will happen to our money-making machines if perpetual growth slows down or stops. What will be the economic consequences? The emotional consequences? How will our nations and businesses and individual people feel if we’re on a downslope of growth? We’re afraid to find out.
One experience that I’ve had in kicking addictions is learning that enough is okay. When you finally let go of the constant drive for bigger-better-faster-more, you learn that you can live with what life does actually have to offer without the killing drug – life on life’s terms. Living without addiction is not only possible; it has been better than a life in addiction! By gratefully appreciating the bountiful, wonderful gifts of life, I’ve seen great things that outweigh the highs and lows of addiction. Although it was hard to change, it’s now an easier, better life.
Do we love our life in this planetary body more than we love the high of infinite growth? Can we learn to live without it? I’d love to say the answer is obvious, that a life that includes limits is better than death by addiction. But we’re hooked bad, and addicts don’t always make it. If we don’t kick the habit, we’ll kill the body, and like a lot of addictions, drag living things in our orbit down with us.
What if we stopped chasing the dragon, and appreciated all we could still accomplish without killing ourselves? It’s not a hypothetical question, it’s a plan for living. Mindfulness teaches us that the miracle was there all the time. We weren’t looking close enough, and we were distracted by the frantic race to something that looked like more. What we have right here is enough.