We're all in this together
We all have our own problems to deal with--paying bills, putting food on the table, protecting our homes and families. These are the things we focus on—the parts of our immediate world. We all work hard to protect and maintain what is “ours”—those things that we care for. We typically don’t feel like we have time or energy to devote to the rest of the world’s problems. It’s not that we don’t care, it’s just that we have priorities, and so many of the issues that sustainability advocates talk about seem like they’re not of immediate importance in our individual lives. It doesn’t help that in ‘Western’ or ‘developed’ societies, we’re conditioned to value individuality and independence, to see ourselves as apart from the greater system, not a part of it. And the technologies that surround us, and supposedly make us so much more connected, in reality often end up reinforcing that sense of separation. We end up feeling fairly disconnected from the rest of nature and humanity, and thus a