Why Being Minimalist is Actually About Saving The Planet

December 3rd, 2009 § 0 comments

Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter

I believe were all pursuing this minimalist life because somewhere, deep down below the surface, we know being minimalist is the only way we’re going to save the planet.

I spend a lot of time writing articles about how to live a simple lifestyle, I give step by step instructions about which habits to adopt. Then I cross my fingers and I hope that a couple of the 10,000 people that visited this site in the last month will adopt these habits and make their lives better.

But my dream is much bigger than convincing a few people to unclutter their closets.

Embracing a minimalist lifestyle is the best way to save everything.

There’s a double meaning to every post that I write. By spreading the word that living a life without stuff is the best way for us all to achieve a better life together, we also make it possible for the world not to end.

The manufacturing of low quality goods destined for the trash heap, burning of billions of tons of fossil fuel, deforestation, the flawed food we eat.

We know these things are wrong, but a minimalist decides to actually opt out. They make the conscious decision to stop perpetuating the cycle of consumerism that has plagued our culture for the last 100 years.

All of these problems are ultimately connected to us.

We are the ones making these decisions now.

I visited my mother’s house in Chicago this week, and my 17 year-old sister remarked yesterday “isn’t it weird that now is a time that they will be writing down in history books?”

Yes, exactly. These are times for the history books.

How these days will be recalled is our choice though. Do we want this time to be remembered as the age when we dropped the ball and let the planet die? or will we stop spending, stop collecting, and begin to clean up this stupid mess that we’ve got ourselves in?

So share these stories. By these, I don’t mean my stories. I mean minimalist stories. The ones that all of the minimalist bloggers write about every day –the bloggers I’ve interviewed, the bloggers on my blog roll, the bloggers I tweet about every day. The minimalist stories that YOU can write. These are your stories that you tell the world every time you tweet, blog, facebook, or have a conversation in the real world.

By adopting a minimalist lifestyle, you can make a difference.

There is no magic bullet, no treaty, no scientific contraption that is going to dig us out of this mess. Every decision impacts the footprint we have on this earth.

Imagine if every one of the 10,000 people that visited my site in the last month told 10,000 people how they could have less of an impact? What if those 10,000 people told another 10,000 each?

Maybe we’d make a difference.

The choice is yours. You’re the one who makes the difference.

Share the minimalist ideas, save the world.

Comments are closed.

What's this?

You are currently reading Why Being Minimalist is Actually About Saving The Planet at Far Beyond The Stars: The Archives.

meta