In his book Who Rules the Earth?, Paul F. Steinberg makes many compelling points about what effective environmental action looks like. The overarching argument made in this text is that we do not live in a vacuum. Existing structures dictate how we must go about making new rules as well as how these rules will function in the real world.
One essential takeaway from this book is that environmental, political, social, and economic solutions are not one-size-fits-all. Each country, state, city, neighborhood, etc. has its own unique set of social rules, so trying to prescribe the same remedies to different places is a Band-Aid solution. It does not resolve underlying problems or account for repercussions specific to each location. For example, cap-and-trade systems are often useful, but do not work effectively in all places due to varying circumstances (Steinberg 2015). Different places need their own ingrained social rules.
Unfortunately, it can be hard to tell when a rule has become too deeply entrenched. Steinberg uses the US Forest Service as an example of the downfalls of such immovable policies, having “immunized itself against new ideas at a great cost to our natural environment” (Steinberg 2015). Since it is so difficult to create new rules, it is natural to hope that these changes will address problems completely and will last forever. As we attempt to solve problems, though, we often discover that they are more complex than we anticipated and/or that we have created new issues. Social structures cannot be so stubborn as to prevent modifications that may be necessary in the future.
On the other hand, we cannot make all of our solutions temporary because it would be virtually impossible to have to replace so many rules so frequently. Just like in physical structures, demolishing one part of a social structure without constructing anything in its place will threaten surrounding zones and may even compromise the integrity of the entire structure. To create lasting change, we have to work within our existing institutions and understand that while people’s opinions can change quickly, the public does not always change its mind overnight since “Generational turnover produces a very gradual drift in social priorities” (Steinberg 2015). Progress is often slow and painful because we have to challenge our existing structures, but it is a natural and necessary process too.
Since starting to read Who Rules the Earth?, I think I have made some personal progress. I am just as inclined to do little things like take a reusable bag to the store, but I have found myself worrying less about individual-level action and more about what I can do to affect the institutions that I am a part of. This is simultaneously relieving, exciting, and stressful because I feel like I have the potential to make a significant difference, but I know that this will require a lot more effort than many of the small actions I have been trained to do.
This book has also been very helpful in my journey towards accepting that there is almost never a “right answer”. There are better answers and worse answers, but there is no perfect solution to anything that goes on in this world. I have found this lesson quite helpful because I am prone to indecisiveness. When I approach a decision, I analyze every detail of the situation because I think that there must be one concrete SOLUTION. In reality, nobody can say definitively how any particular decision will work out. This may seem like a gloomy perspective, but I actually find it liberating. We might as well do the best we can with the situation we have been dealt rather than being paralyzed by the gravity of it all. Steinberg argues that even a change-oriented idea such as “unleash human inventiveness” will not save the world by itself (Steinberg 2015). This means that one big disaster probably will not be the end of the world either. Even though our actions may have unintended consequences, we still need to do something! Who knows — maybe some of our solutions will work out even better than we expect…
The decisions we make do not happen in a vacuum. Therefore, we must abide by existing structures in order to create change, even though this change may not always happen in the manner we want or expect it to.
References
Steinberg, Paul F. 2015. Who Rules the Earth?: How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives. New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press.