Who Rules the Earth? How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives by Paul F. Steinberg has without a doubt been my favorite book covered in ENVS 160. Partially because of his style and vibrant examples of the material he covers, but mostly because of the take home message he presents, closing the book in a way that leaves it up to the reader to apply his key message to think and act bigger.
Steinberg starts off the book with the core message that “this book is born of the idea that the environmental problems we face today … are so large, and the social processes driving them are so powerful, that we need to think big-and soon” (Steinberg 2015, 13). This message really resonated with me, as I agree both as an environmental scholar being informed on these massive issues that our planet is facing, as well as in my personal life, feeling this conflict of trying to make a difference but feeling as though my actions do not have a significant effect. This notion of thinking big is something I am absolutely in agreement upon, but I am always left with the question of: how?
One of the biggest solutions that he raises to this question of mine is to not rely on other people, technology, policies etc. to try and fight for change, but rather to push harder and strive for bigger and better. Towards the end of the book he proposes “four ideas that will not change the world”, ideas that many people have, myself included, that create this reliance on other sources to fix a problem that is just “too big” for the everyday person such as myself. This portion of the book really resonated with me as it exposed these ideas that I have and informed me that they are detrimental towards actually achieving change. In summary, he essentially states that we cannot rely on autonomous technology and engineering to reverse damage, or the wealth of our country to facilitate improvements, or regulations and different market strategies to help create a more stable economy as these are diverting the responsibility on solutions that are maybe not even willing to take on this heavy responsibility to make things better and change the world (Steinberg 2015). Steinberg also ends on his fourth idea that will not change the world by again addressing the inadequacy of small-scale individual action stating that “the notion that we can save the planet if we all do our part through lifestyle changes and greener consumer choices” is again, another idea that will not sufficiently bring about the change that we desire. He follows his claim with the idea that, “these isolated individual actions are fine and well, but are simply inadequate given the size of the challenge” reiterating this central claim to his book that small actions and efforts are not the solution we need (Steinberg 2015,219).
Again, I was still left wondering how I can, as an individual, practice what Steinberg is preaching and apply it to my life personally, as well as an intellectual wanting to really make a difference. Steinberg ties up the book by offering some solutions. He suggests to challenge the system, to keep asking Why? and keep fighting. As well as to understand how rule-making works in order to get your foot in the door and understand how you can infiltrate the system of policies to favor more ‘green’ practices and regulations (Steinberg 2015, 267-268). This suggestion was one that I feel as though I can apply to my personal life as it gives good advice as to how to fight for regulatory change in my own surroundings. Another suggestion Steinberg gives is to “Bridge Research and Action”, one that resonates with me deeply as a scholar of the sciences, a person who values research but too often does not turn it into action. It is one thing to do the research, but it is another (and arguably more important thing) to apply it (Steinberg 2015, 269). Another important lesson is to “Cultivate Process Expertise”, which includes the importance of understanding the society where one is trying to get change to occur. One must understand the dynamic of a place in order to create change in this place (Steinberg 2015, 275). This idea really spoke to me as not only a scientific student, but a student taking an anthropology class learning about the importance of understanding people and places and how I truly do believe it is crucial to understand the surroundings of a place in order to cultivate change because each place is different. These are just a few of his solutions that really resonated with me as a student and an individual.
So who does rule the Earth? I think the people who really do rule this planet are the ones that are driven, courageous and ambitious enough to make efforts that will actually save it. People who are not scared to do more than recycle and limit themselves to small-scale individual acts but instead take on large corporations and policies and challenge them despite how mighty and untouchable they may seem, because that is what this Earth needs right now. It needs people like June Irwin and people like you and me if we can be courageous enough to rule the earth by fighting for it in big ways.
Works Cited:
- Steinberg, Paul F. 2015. Who rules the earth?: how social rules shape our planet and our lives.