Uncommon Sense: Help! Cynicism under attack!

Written by Jeff Morris
Thursday, 09 February 2012 01:00

Two Sundays ago, I attended the Lewisboro Library's annual meeting, where the featured speaker was photographer J. Henry Fair. Mr. Fair is a co-founder and director of South Salem's Wolf Conservation Center and still lives nearby, though I don't think he either dances or sleeps with wolves. (I can't verify either of those assumptions.)

In recent years, Mr. Fair has devoted himself to a singular mission: documenting the environmental degradation visited upon numerous locations as a result of various questionable industrial practices. What sets his photos apart is his ability to capture images of catastrophic destruction, mostly from the air, that appear at first glance to be abstract, oddly surrealistic and strangely beautiful. It's only after you find out exactly what it is you're looking at that you begin to appreciate the awful truth about what is on display. A book of his Industrial Scars photographs, The Day After Tomorrow: Images of Our Earth in Crisis, came out last year.

While Mr. Fair has not exactly been under the radar — he's had some high-profile exhibitions and appearances in leading publications and on TV, including NBC's Today Show — it would be a stretch to say that his work has gone mainstream. Others may disagree, but I'd say that mostly, it's people who are already aware of and concerned about what's happening to the planet who are familiar with him, despite his exhaustive series of presentations worldwide.

At the library meeting, I became enmeshed in a discussion with several of those present about what the average person can do to change things, how to get the message out and whether that message is in fact resonating with most people. What I'd forgotten until I started to write this column was that I'd already had this same discussion a year ago on Mr. Fair's Facebook page, after reading a post in which he said he'd decided the most important thing he could do was start a movement to convince people to stop buying stuff, and turn off the lights, in order to "win the game." My response at the time was:

"Henry, I appreciate the intention behind your sentiments ... but still find the message of 'convincing people to stop buying stuff and turn off the lights' rather tone-deaf and, frankly, elitist. Turn off the lights that they don't need? Fine. But as an overall strategy, it's a bit disingenuous to suggest people stop using power while communicating it over a network that uses power. And the suggestion that people 'stop buying stuff' assumes that people are buying stuff they don't need. Is that true? Yes. But with the economy the way it is, are most people struggling to buy things they DO need? I think so. And if people stop 'buying things,' doesn't that actually work AGAINST economic recovery and job development? Do MOST people have the option to withdraw from the developed world and commune with nature? ... The corporate-ocracy has succeeded in making the 'average working stiff' so desperate that they're grateful for whatever crappy job, salary or benefits they can get; set them against their own interests and the public sector; and made the fight to save the planet seem secondary and irrelevant while they focus on trying to support their own families. THAT is the game that's being played. How does convincing people to 'stop buying stuff' win it?"

Mr. Fair reiterated that a lot of people buy stuff they don't need or is ultimately bad for them, and that most houses (except his) are aglow with lights in rooms that are empty — but that, in a larger sense, "turn off the lights" is a mantra for aggressively curbing waste. He asked whether, for instance, one really needs to leave the hot water heater on all day rather than just heating up water when needed, thus saving money and carbon.

Cynical as always, I replied that I thought the majority of the public viewed calls to cut back, cut down, and restrict their driving as ultimately curtailing their "freedom," and that "we need to get them united on the side of sustainability, including alternative energy sources and the very water heating technologies you talk about." But how? We basically had this same discussion once again at the library. Several advocates of social media-inspired movements convinced me that most people are open to and enthusiastic about changing their behavior when presented with alternatives and the long-term costs and consequences of current practices.

I ... want ... to ... believe. Please tell me they're right.