What Does It Mean To Live Sustainably?
By: Elena Zevallos
Tags: Inspiration, Nature, Sustainability, Indigenous, Environment

Let’s nosedive into the deeper meaning behind this modern-day concept.

“Look after the land and the land will look after you, destroy the land and it will destroy you.” — Aboriginal Proverb

How does it feel to halt the monotonous chatter of everyday life and listen to nature’s daily routines transpire around you?

Can you place an ear on the ground and listen to the deep and slow movements of the Earth as it subtly changes beneath you?

Place your hand on the bark of a tree and send your energy into its body — can you feel its presence intertwine with yours?

Plant your feet onto the bare earth. Watch the palette of colors shift to different shades as the sun reorients itself. Observe the inner and outer workings of nature as they conduct their usual routines to sustain all life. The birds, insects, plants, trees, mammals, amphibians, soil, water, sunlight, breeze, dust — they are all part of an interwoven network, creating an ecosystem that we humans require in order to survive and thrive on.

Recognize this magic?

For the majority of us, it takes effort to stop and recognize this prolific design. Most of us as children aren’t taught about the innate connection we share with the ecosystem. We aren’t shown how to live in collaboration with it, rather than against it. We are not educated on the medicinal properties of plants and herbs, how to identify and integrate them into our diets. There is no emphasis on the value of food: how to grow it or foster a relationship with it. We are not encouraged to create things so that we may become self-sufficient, or bond with our community to fulfill our social needs.

Instead, we’ve become reliant on the current traditional model of society. It’s a model that’s helped us evolve into becoming consumer-focused rather than creator-focused. A culture led by impulsive cravings instead of conscious desires. It’s a way of thinking that amplifies and endorses our differences. Our innate human intuition — even our primal instinct — has been smothered by a system that can no longer sustain itself.

Photo by Eyoel Kahssay

Yes, there are perks about this systemic model. The current technological advancements towards a faster, bigger, and better society does have fruitful-looking prospects. Our world has never been more galvanized to solve the climate crisis through both technological and personal lifestyle endeavors that can shift societal focus towards healing our environment. But before we make any big shifts, we must prioritize a key element that’ll make the process easier: to re-establish a personal connection with our home.

Sustainability Is About Co-Existence

As unanimously defined by most Indigenous tribes, it is the result of living in balance with the natural world, and consciously living by these standards. It shouldn’t be a privilege. It’s the way humans are designed in order to not only survive, but also thrive, on this planet.

Julia Watson, a Harvard University landscape architect and lecturer who has traveled the world studying indigenous structural designs, recently released Lo-TEK Design By Radical Indigenism. In the book she conveys that native communities around the world are more advanced and less primitive than we think — they inherently understand how to live in tandem with the natural world. Their villages are designed to co-exist with their local environments and habitats and support the Earth’s natural cycles. They are able to produce their own food, sequester carbon, mitigate flooding, protect themselves from wildfires, generate clean water, to name a few. As opposed to Westernized high-technology models that build over vital ecological habitats and fail to integrate nature into their urban designs, it proves that most indigenous cultures are not only more well-equipped to handle climate changes than us, but they’re also making little impact on the environment. And if anything, they’re impact is a positive one.

Before western colonization, every living being within each global ecosystem was able to give and receive in moderation — extracting what was necessary and giving back the same amount in return. We knew that through developing an intimate relationship with the land and our community, life would thrive. And now, this ancient philosophy exists under the twenty-first-century term of sustainability.

Photo by Markus Spisky

You could say that it was easy for them to live so simply and harmoniously with their environment because they only consisted of a small number of people. Today, overpopulation and the lack of equal distribution of resources threatens our prosperity. It shows we can no longer rely on larger systems that don’t prioritize sustainable alternatives and most importantly, don’t fairly allocate land, materials, and wealth to each demographic. This is why I, and so many others, advocate for the transition from a corporate-dependent, isolated society to a more localized, cohesive and community-oriented one where we can depend on ourselves and each other. This approach, one that extends back to our roots, is proving to be far more viable if we want to generate a functional and idyllic society.

Sustainability Is About Values

In this modern heyday, while a pandemic stretches to every corner of the globe, natural disasters run rampant and the human race continues to drift further apart from each other, I can’t help but recognize that the current struggles we’re facing are due to the ever-increasing detachment from each other, our communities, our Earth, and even ourselves. We’ve lost an understanding of the spiritual and emotional elements that serve as the basis of these relationships. And the worst part? We’ve acclimatized to this disconnection after many generations of amplifying it.

Máxima Acuña, a Peruvian subsistence farmer internationally-recognized for her environmental activism, was beaten alongside her daughter for refusing to leave their property under the extreme coercion of Newmont Mining Company — the second largest mining industry in the world. For many years following the incident, she and her family received ongoing harassments and lawsuits for refusing to hand over her land to a business that would destroy it.

Máxima Acuña is just one example out of thousands more individuals and communities worldwide who have been suffering from criminal actions committed by global corporations.

Clearly, there is a huge loss in values and principles. To put into perspective: colonization has dismantled ancient indigenous methods that once encompassed sustainability, and stored this knowledge away to be left ignored. Food development went from small, communal efforts to massive mono-crop agriculture that produces food from nutrient-deprived soil and raise livestock through abhorrently unethical methods. Global industries objectify living beings and treat them as commodities. Humans who have low societal status are dehumanized. Their sufferings — bigger profit. Local communities of people who once supported and depended on each other is now an entire culture of independence and isolation, leading to mental health degradation and suicide. What was once respect for the planet we live on and consideration for its health so that humans may live with health is nothing more than forgotten knowledge. Our culture promotes the idea that life is made up of tolerating lifeless jobs, living compulsively, drowning in mind-numbing media noise, and disregarding the rest of the living world. It’s become wildly evident — the disconnection from everything around us has driven our society to forget and ignore the more spiritual figures that bind us.

There is a massive lack of empathy — the ability to feel the life on this planet — and our innate attunement with the community inside and outside of us. And to create a life of sustainability, a life that includes all beings as part of an interconnected sequence, there has to be a collective resurgence of empathy.

We need to honor, respect, appreciate and love this giant blue living being we exist on. To intentionally create a bond — a relationship — the way we would with a person.

Photo by Simon Wijers

Sustainability Is About Connection

It’s about including rather than excluding, all life around us. Connecting, rather than separating. Recognizing the injustices in our environment and acting out of the desire to heal things. And through forming a connection with our planet, inspiration will naturally kick in. We might want to pick trash up from the ground or partake in protests and sign petitions. We might feel inspired to get our hands dirtied by damp soil as we begin a garden. We might make time to educate ourselves on ways to live in alignment with the earth through reducing our waste, shopping for locally-sourced and ethically-made items from honest companies, or even create our products. We might share these goals with others. All these things might become second nature because it’s already in our nature. Because this planet is a parent that we are born from, and it’s something we want to protect and preserve.

This is the kind of connection we need, with not just the Earth but with the people and other living creatures who share this planet with us. But what’s paramount is being able to connect with ourselves. To be able to listen to our bodies, know when decisions are made impulsively, feeling what foods and environments are right for our bodies (and what’s not), getting in touch with emotion, acting out of desire instead of craving, and treating ourselves with love and kindness — are some of the ways we can establish a bond with ourselves. And there’s a power in that. From here, connecting with everything else becomes effortless.