"Long ago the poet and bioregionalist Gary Snyder said, The most radical thing
you can do is stay home, a phrase that has itself stayed with me for the many
years since I first heard it. Some or all of its meaning was present then, in
the bioregional 1970s, when going back to the land and consuming less was how
the task was framed. The task has only become more urgent as climate change in
particular underscores that we need to consume a lot less. Its curious, in the
chaos of conversations about what we ought to do to save the world, how seldom
sheer modesty comes up living smaller, staying closer, having less especially
for us in the ranks of the privileged. Not just having a fuel-efficient car, but
maybe leaving it parked and taking the bus, or living a lot closer to work in
the first place, or not having a car at all. A third of carbon-dioxide emissions
nationwide are from the restless movements of goods and people."
Rebecca Solnit shares more in this thoughtful essay.
