Ozark Sierran
March April 2000

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 In past issues of this newsletter, I’ve done my best to challenge the “environmental” movement’s past and present approach. Summed up, that approach is: Discover (or suspect) that something undesirable is occurring—air/water is being polluted, topsoil is being depleted, forests are being clear–cut, and so on—then react to this by pressing for some sort of government legislation to address the problem, whether by regulating or banning the undesirable behavior (in most cases, the former). This doesn’t cover every single thing that’s been done or is being done, but I think it’s fair to say it covers the vast majority.

We have pointed out that, not only is this reactionary—it waits to act until something harmful is already happening, and damage has already been done—it also serves to institutionalize the behavior. You don’t need to set up a program of regulation and management for an activity that has stopped, after all. And what about the harmful things we don’t even realize are happening because we don’t understand the system being damaged? 

This approach starts from the premise that people are always going to be doing something to muck up the planet, so the best we can hope to do is chase around behind them, put out the fires we can (when we’re allowed to), and try to control the countless others. It’s clear to me that our fire brigade is much too small to keep up, though, and in many cases we don’t even discover a fire has been raging until years after it started. Also, a home that’s been burned can never be restored to what it once was.

 We have suggested a different approach, one based on the concept of changing minds. In short, if someone’s mind has changed, you won’t have to go around behind them putting out the fires they start, because they will do their best to avoid starting fires in the first place, and they will rush to put out any they do accidentally start .

A common response to this suggestion is that it will just take too long—we don’t have time to convince billions of individuals to change their own lives. Our only hope is to force them to change by forbidding them to do what they’re doing (laws and regulations) or by making it too expensive (fees, pollution taxes, etc.). Is that true, though? 

Right now there are estimated to be just over 6 billion people alive as part of earth. I’m going to make what I think is a low guess and assume that there are already 500,000 with changed minds worldwide. Let’s see what they can do: 

• If each of those 500,000 people commit themselves to changing one other person’s mind over the next year (a mind a year seems reasonable to me), then there will be one million changed minds a year from now. 
• And if each of those one million changes one mind over the following year, there will be two million two years from now. 
• And if those two million do the same, there will be four million three years from now. 
• And if those four million follow suit, there will be eight million four years from now—eight million out of the more than six BILLION humans that will most likely then be alive. Pretty slow, eh? 
• If this pattern continues, if we are only so successful as to each change one mind a year, then how long would it take to change everyone’s mind? Just fourteen years. Do the math: 

Five years from now, those eight million would become sixteen.
 Six years from now, those sixteen would be thirty–two. 
Seven years from now, those thirty–two would be sixty–four. 
Eight years from now, those sixty–four would be one hundred and twenty–eight. 

Nine years from now, those one hundred and twenty–eight would be two hundred and fifty–six. 
Ten years from now, those two hundred and fifty–six would be five hundred and twelve. 
Eleven years from now, those five hundred and twelve would be one and twenty–four—one billion, twenty–four million, that is. 
Twelve years from now, those one and twenty–four would be two and forty–eight. 
Thirteen years from now, those two and forty–eight would be four and ninety–six. 

And just fourteen years from now, those four and ninety–six would be eight and one hundred and ninety–two—eight billion, one hundred and ninety–two million. 

The world’s current human population is estimated to be just under six billion, so, even allowing population growth of another two billion–plus people, we could change the minds of all of them in only fourteen years if we just will commit ourselves to each changing one mind a year. Is that doable? Is that too much to ask? I think we could do more. 

No, changing people’s minds alone will not save the world, but people with truly changed minds will lead truly changed lives. Changing minds isn’t an end in and of itself. In my opinion, though, it is the foundation we must lay in order to begin saving the world. Think of the human creative potential that would be unleashed by having hundreds of millions, then billions, of people setting their minds to figuring out new, sustainable ways (yes, ways, plural) to live.

We also don’t need to set our goal at changing every single mind, for two reasons: First, the tribal peoples of the world are already living well without destroying the world, near as I can tell (though I don’t know how many of them there still are). Second, there’s no one right way to live. Quite a few of us (the people of civilization) must change if we’re going to save the world, but not all. 

And can any piece or package of legislation, any presidential initiative, or any armed revolutionary movement hope to save the world more quickly? The saving of the world cannot be imposed, from above, on people whose unchanged minds resist it. How many years have we been trying to do it that way so far? Are we anywhere near succeeding?

 Changing minds may not save the world in time, but I don’t see how any other strategy that has been proposed could possibly work more quickly. 

And that’s a challenge.

While I wrote this piece, my thanks go to teacher/author Daniel Quinn (Ishmael and other books) for pointing out just how quickly changing minds can change the world. If you have any questions or comments, you may call me at 816-753-6081 or send an e–mail to dsdnt@kctera.net.